A topic we frequently address, since it often becomes the subject of appellate decisions, is whether a worker is injured while in the scope and course of his or her job. Generally (outside the commuting issue), either the employee took a small, momentary departure from the job, or completely left…
Back in August, 2016, we discussed the case of City of Philadelphia Fire Department v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Sladek). For those who do not recall, this was the case (well, one of several recent cases actually) which determined that a firefighter must prove the cancer he or she developed…
A threshold issue in a Pennsylvania workers’ compensation case is whether the person who was injured was actually an “employee.” This is an area we have addressed on this blog in the past. Recently, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania decided a case regarding this issue. In the matter of Department…
We have previously discussed the “coming and going rule” in Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation, where, essentially, an employee is not covered by the PA Workers’ Compensation Act if he or she is injured while on the commute to or from work. Like most legal rules, of course, there are exceptions. The…
According to a memo released by Alfonso Frioni, Jr., Esquire, Chairman of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (WCAB), Commissioner Susan M. McDermott has decided to retire after spending over twenty years on the WCAB, including a stint as the very first female Chairperson of the WCAB. The entire text…
Back in June, 2015, we discussed the Commonwealth Court decision in Duffey v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Trola-Dyne, Inc.). In this decision, which confounded us at the time, the Court said that an injured worker could not successfully expand the description of his or her work injury after an Impairment…
Pennsylvania work-related injuries occur in many forms. We see musculoskeletal trauma, such as a broken wrist or ankle, a herniated disc in the neck or back, or tears in the knee or shoulder, among many others. Neurological injuries also unfortunately happen, and can include Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD)/Complex Regional Pain…
On our blog, we have previously discussed cases where the dispute in a case is whether an injured worker was actually engaged in his or her employment duties at the time of the injury (what we call the “scope and course” of their work). As you may have noticed, these…
As we have mentioned, workers’ compensation laws vary widely from State to State, making the selection of which workers’ compensation laws apply to a given case a critical determination. As much as there are things in PA law that benefit the workers’ comp insurance carrier, many aspects of Pennsylvania law…
As noted on our website, generally, an injured worker cannot sue his or her employer for its negligence in causing a work-related injury. Additionally, unlike in a negligence case, workers’ compensation benefits do not include payment for pain and suffering. Occasionally, however, there is another party (a “third party”) that…