One of the basic concepts of a workers’ compensation case in Pennsylvania, is that the injured worker actually be an employee. A person truly working as an “independent contractor” is not covered by the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act (Act). How someone becomes an “independent contractor,” at least for PA workers’…
Since coming into the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act (Act) in the 1996 amendments, the Impairment Rating Evaluation (IRE) is here to stay. This is an important tool available to the workers’ comp insurance carriers in PA, and can be used to contain exposure on a file. An entire page devoted…
As a general rule, once workers’ compensation benefits are awarded to an injured worker in Pennsylvania, the insurance carrier cannot stop paying those benefits without permission from either the injured worker (signing a document such as a Supplemental Agreement or a Final Receipt) or from a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ).…
Sometimes the issue is a workers’ compensation case in Pennsylvania is a very straightforward one. For example, is interest on past due workers’ compensation benefits in PA to be calculated using simple interest or compound interest? This was the issue faced by the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania in Tobler v.…
One of the more common areas of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act (Act) seen in appellate cases is the issue of whether an injured worker was in the scope and course of his or her employment at the time of the injury. This is often a very fact-specific inquiry. Recently,…
Once PA workers’ compensation benefits are modified or suspended, such as by the injured worker resuming gainful employment, the injured worker has at least 500 weeks within which he or she can reinstate total disability benefits (if the disability related to the injury recurs). If the benefits had been modified…
******************REVERSED BY SUPREME COURT OF PENNSYLVANIA – SEE BLOG ENTRY 1/20/17******************** One of the big changes to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act in the overhaul of 1996 was the introduction of the Impairment Rating Evaluation (IRE). This has become such a significant part of the Act that our website has…
We rarely discuss Pennsylvania appellate cases other than those directly involving workers’ compensation. However, a recent unemployment compensation case touches on the workers’ compensation process, and may be of interest to our readers. The case is Paolucci v. Unemployment Compensation Board of Review, recently decided by the Commonwealth Court of…
An often litigated provision within the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act (Act) is the 1996 addition, which provides workers’ comp insurance carriers with an ability to change “total” disability status to that of “partial” disability. This is known as the Impairment Rating Evaluation (IRE) process. The significance of such a change…
The Pennsylvania Bureau of Workers’ Compensation has been much more open about changes in the hiring and assignment of Workers’ Compensation Judges (WCJs) than in years past. In fact, to the credit of the Bureau, we have received electronic notification regularly for additions or changes in the workers’ compensation hearing…