**Update – On April 4, 2011, The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania accepted appeal in the Robinson case. Therefore, what we have written here about the status of the law in Pennsylvania may change. Stay tuned for more details!** In this blog, we have addressed the consequences of “retirement,” as it…
Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Lawyer Blog
Compromise & Release Settlement in PA Workers’ Comp Not Enforceable Until Granted by Workers’ Compensation Judge
When an injured worker in PA wants to settle his or her Pennsylvania workers’ compensation claim in exchange for a lump sum of money, the process generally used is the “Compromise & Release Agreement.” This type of workers’ comp settlement is voluntary between the parties. A Compromise & Release can…
Chronic Pain May Be Treated Without Prescription Medications
As Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation attorneys, we see a wide variety of conditions faced by injured workers, from broken arms and legs to Complex Regional Pain Syndrome and Brachial Plexopathy, and everything in between. While the conditions plaguing these injured workers vary widely, there is one constant we see in case…
Injured Worker in PA Entitled to Reinstatement of Workers’ Comp Benefits When Earnings Again Lost Due to Work Injury
Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, as that set of laws has been interpreted by Courts in Pennsylvania, there has been some confusion regarding when an injured worker can be reinstated to total disability workers’ compensation benefits. For example, an injured worker who returns to light duty work with the…
Injury Outside PA Can Be Compensable Under PA Workers’ Comp Act
A work injury is covered by the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act when the injury takes place in PA. However, even when a work injury occurs outside Pennsylvania, there are times PA has “jurisdiction” to hear the case. One of those situations when PA workers’ comp laws can apply to a…
IME More Than Six Months Old Still Valid in PA Workers’ Comp
Before Labor Market Surveys (LMS)/Earning Power Assessments (EPA), workers’ comp insurance carriers in PA used to actually have to prove a specific job was available to an injured worker in order to modify or suspend workers’ compensation benefits. This changed in the 1996 amendments to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act,…
Rehab for ACL Tear May Be Beneficial Before Surgery
A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, reported by the Associated Press, found that amateur athletes (and by extension, victims of work injuries in PA), who have torn the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in their knee, actually do better by trying to rehab the knee before…
Review Petition to Add New Injury Barred in PA Workers’ Comp After Three Years
In an earlier blog entry, we discussed the 2009 decision by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in Cinram Manufacturing v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Hill). This case discussed the procedure for amending a Notice of Compensation Payable (NCP). The Court, in Cinram, decided that a “corrective amendment” (a condition which…
PA Workers’ Comp Judge Agrees Armed Robbery is “Abnormal Working Condition” in Pennsylvania; Employer Appeals
Some time ago, we made a brief deviation from our normal course of not blogging about own active cases, to discuss a liquor store clerk who was robbed at gunpoint. The PA Liquor Control Board (LCB) denied the claim, stating that being robbed at gunpoint was not an “abnormal working…
Acupuncture Served As a Fatigue And Pain Treatment
We are pleased to present a guest blog post from http://www.metropolitanmds.com regarding the use of acupuncture. We thought this may be of benefit to injured workers, who may be interested in exploring alternative areas for pain relief: Acupuncture is one of the oldest forms of health care and treatments on…