As a general rule, when an injured worker in PA loses a light duty job, through no fault of his or her own, temporary total disability benefits are to be reinstated. Like any general rule, of course, there are exceptions. One of the major exceptions involves the time period at…
An injured worker in Pennsylvania is generally entitled to workers’ compensation benefits when the injured worker is disabled from his or her job as a result of the work injury, unless the loss in earnings is due to the injured worker’s own bad conduct. In these types of cases, the…
The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania recently weighed in on the case of Lancaster General Hospital v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Weber-Brown). As our loyal readers may recall, back in 2009, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania granted “specific loss” benefits for the loss of an eye in 2007, despite the onset…
We have addressed the effect a layoff has on an injured worker in Pennsylvania before. Under the 2005 Supreme Court of Pennsylvania decision in Reifsnyder v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Dana Corp), an injured worker who had been laid off for periods of time before his or her injury receives…
In PA Workers’ Compensation, almost everything has a specific amount of benefit, for a specific period of time. A workers’ comp rate is determined by starting with the Average Weekly Wage (AWW) and using a precise formula. If an injured worker in PA loses a finger, toe, hand, foot, arm…
Not very long ago, this blog expressed our disappointment with the decision rendered by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania in Glaze v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (City of Pittsburgh), where the Court remanded to the Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) for the WCJ to find some amount of a credit for…
As long time readers of our blog know, Utilization Review is the process either party can use to address whether medical treatment for a PA work injury is reasonable or necessary. Though the Courts in Pennsylvania have made it clear that treatment can be reasonable and necessary while merely “palliative”…
Previously, we discussed the case of Fitzgibbons v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (City of Philadelphia). In this decision, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held that a Petition to Review, to expand a description of injury, must be filed within three years of the last payment of workers’ compensation benefits. This…
We have discussed Section 204(a), part of the 1996 amendments to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, previously on our blog. This Section gives the workers’ comp insurance carrier a right to a credit, or offset, on other types of benefits, including Social Security Retirement, unemployment compensation, severance and pension benefits.…
Whether an injured worker in PA has “voluntarily withdrawn from the labor market” has been a frequent topic on this blog. There has been a great deal of litigation on this issue in the appellate courts over the past several years. We are seeing that the details and facts in…