Back in 2017, we shared the exciting news (hey, we attorneys have a unique sense of excitement!) that the entire Impairment Rating Evaluation (IRE) section of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act (Act) was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of PA (The Protz case) and stricken from the Act. This,…
Once an injured worker in Pennsylvania establishes an entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits (when out of work, the benefits are known as “temporary total disability benefits” or TTD), the workers’ comp insurance carrier cannot just stop paying the benefits at its discretion. This is one of the advantages of the…
This blog does not address Coronavirus (COVID-19) and how it relates to PA workers’ compensation. Which is good, because I think we are all tired of seeing the words “Coronavirus” or “COVID-19.” Instead, we are looking at a recent decision from the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, wherein the Court looked…
Usually, if the testimony of an injured worker, and that of the medical expert offered by the injured worker, is not found credible by the Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ), there is no way to win the case. This highlights just how important it is to have a “presumption” under the…
One of the important aspects to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act (“Act”) is Section 309, which deals with the calculation of the Average Weekly Wage (AWW), controlling the amount of benefits an injured worker in PA will receive. We have discussed these calculations in previous blog posts. Additionally, the concept…
We have discussed the Utilization Review (UR) process many times in this blog. Indeed, UR is such a big issue in the world of Pennsylvania workers’ compensation that we have a section on our website devoted to just this topic. Basically, UR is the tool used by either an injured…
When we litigate a Claim Petition, to obtain PA workers’ compensation benefits for one who is injured at work, we must prove that the person was hurt while in the scope and course of his or her job, and that such injury renders the person disabled. Almost always, this requires…
While workers in Pennsylvania are generally all covered by the PA Workers’ Compensation Act (other than certain classes, such as Federal workers, some of those in the shipping industry, and others), not all are treated equally. There is a stark difference between “stationary” employees (who go to the same job…
Previously, we have discussed “reported” cases versus “non-reported” cases, and how each can be used (the Courts have now started to use the terms “precedential” versus “non-precedential”). Since they are not binding on a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ), we rarely discuss non-precedential (or “non-reported”) cases on our blog. However, when…
Once an injured worker proves an entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits in PA, only certain things allow a Pennsylvania workers’ comp insurance company to stop paying those benefits. Some of the more common things would be convincing a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) that the injured worker has fully recovered, has…