It is well-settled law in PA that an aggravation of a pre-existing condition is compensable under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act. However, depending on the condition at issue, the work injury may be seen to end when the worker returns to his or her baseline condition (or, in other words,…
Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, and throughout legal process generally, once a matter has been decided, the parties cannot try the matter again. This is called the concept of Res Judicata. Often, for any of a number of reasons, an attorney representing an injured worker asks a Workers’ Compensation…
One aspect of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation system we (thankfully) do not often address is what is known as a “fatal claim,” where the employee is killed in the work accident. This can, of course, occur in the injury itself, or it can occur as a consequence of the original…
We have previously tackled the issue of reinstating benefits under the PA Workers’ Compensation Act. Then, though, we were focusing on how an injured worker can get his or her benefits reinstated. A recent case from the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania addresses an even stickier issue – whether the injured…
Generally speaking, the PA workers’ compensation system is a “no fault” system. It usually doesn’t matter why an employee gets hurt, as long as he or she was doing his or her job at the time. As with most rules, of course, there are exceptions. One exception to this rule…
How the Pennsylvania workers’ compensation system handles undocumented workers is a frequently misunderstood topic, which we have previous addressed. We mentioned that undocumented workers are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits as a general rule, thanks to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision in Reinforced Earth Co. v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board…
When a workers’ compensation insurance carrier in Pennsylvania does not agree with the medical treatment being received by an injured worker, there are steps the carrier can take. The most common is “Utilization Review,” which challenges the reasonableness and necessity of medical treatment. The carrier can also file a Petition…
Once again, we are reporting on the Pennsylvania Court System addressing the issue of retirement, and voluntary withdrawal from the labor market, in the context of a PA workers’ compensation case. In Department of Public Welfare/Norristown State Hospital v.Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Roberts), the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed the…
The calculation of the Average Weekly Wage (AWW) under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act has been explained previously on this blog. Generally, assuming the injured worker had been working for his or her employer for more than a year before the work injury, the AWW is calculated by taking the…
The most damaging petition a workers’ compensation insurance carrier can file against an injured worker in Pennsylvania is a Petition to Terminate. If granted, a Petition to Terminate ends the injured worker’s rights to all PA workers’ compensation benefits for his or her injury, whether wage loss replacement (known as…