Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, an insurance carrier can stop paying benefits to an injured worker who is “incarcerated after a conviction.” The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania recently emphasized that there must be a conviction before workers’ compensation benefits can be suspended. In Rogele Inc.v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board…
In Liveringhouse v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board, decided on March 19, 2009, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed the decision of a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ), which denied claimant’s Petition to Review. In this case, the injured worker filed her Petition to Review to add carpal tunnel syndrome to her…
Ordinarily in a Pennsylvania workers’ compensation case, litigation costs incurred by an injured worker (or his or her lawyer) are reimbursed by the PA workers’ comp insurance carrier if the injured worker was successful “in whole or in part.” This is a very important concept; if claimant attorneys cannot get…
Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, an injured worker is generally covered for all of the effects of the work injury. Things that would not have happened “but for” the work injury often can be included in the workers’ compensation case. Thus, typically, if an injured worker in PA has…
What happens when an injured worker in Pennsylvania is released by his or her doctor to return to work, without restriction, but the injured worker has no job waiting for him or her? Recently, the Commonwealth Court of PA answered this question and put a smile on the face of…
Section 204(a) of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act entitles workers’ comp insurance carriers to an offset if the injured worker receives unemployment compensation benefits, Social Security Retirement benefits, severance benefits or pension benefits. Most of these benefits, and their offsets, are easily calculated. However, when one gets into the area…
As you may recall, in a recent blog entry, we mentioned the case of PGW v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Amodei). This was the case where the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania stated, unequivocally, that credit against pension benefits in PA workers’ comp is to be done on the net amount…
Ordinarily, when an injured worker in Pennsylvania has his or her workers’ compensation benefits modified or suspended, such as by a return to work, having the benefits reinstated to total disability is not difficult provided that the loss of such work is not due to the fault of the injured…
As an attorney representing injured workers in Pennsylvania, I find “no work” jobs to be one of the nastier and more insulting actions an employer can take. Like they sound, “no work” jobs are positions offered to injured workers by their pre-injury employers, where the injured worker is to sit…
The last major changes to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act came in 1996. Among other things, workers’ comp insurance carriers were given a credit for some other benefits an injured worker might receive, such as unemployment compensation, severance benefits, Social Security Retirement benefits and pension benefits [Section 204(a) of the…