In the Summer 2010 issue of News & Notes, published by the PA Bureau of Workers’ Compensation, Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) Joseph Hagan was named to be Judge Manager for the Southeastern District of Pennsylvania. Judge Hagan has been a WCJ in this district, working from the Philadelphia Workers’ Compensation…
Back in October, 2009, we noted that the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania accepted the appeal (or, as formally said, “accepted allocatur”) in the matter of Diehl v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (I.A. Construction). This is the case where the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania first found that a PA workers’ compensation…
Though workers’ compensation laws vary from State to State, there are some elements which remain fairly constant. Workers’ compensation laws are generally “no fault” statutes (no need for an injured worker to demonstrate negligence), and they generally exclude the recovery of “pain and suffering.” Workers’ compensation systems also are usually…
**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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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,…
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…