Workers’ Memorial Day, April 28, 2012, marked the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) over four decades ago. Ceremonies were held across the Commonwealth to honor the memory of workers who were killed or injured while at work. From 2009 to 2010, workplace deaths rose in Pennsylvania from 168 to 219. Nationwide, [...]
Blogs
May 09, 2012
Workers’ Memorial Day marks the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA)
May 04, 2012
Injured at an employer-sponsored event?
At times, you may take part in activities with your employer that don’t fall between the normal “9-to-5″ work hours, such as a work softball league or a charitable event out in the community. What if you get injured? Many employees don’t realize that they may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits for their injury, [...]
May 01, 2012
NFL Team Not Liable for Attorney Fees in Player’s Workers’ Compensation Case
A Pennsylvania appellate court recently ruled that the Pittsburgh Steelers do not have to pay the attorney fees for a former player who sought Workers’ Compensation Benefits. In Chidi Iwuoma vs. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board, Iwuoma sought to have his attorney fees paid after the Steelers challenged his disability benefit award. Iwuoma played for the [...]
April 26, 2012
Surveillance
If you are receiving workers’ compensation benefits chances are that the insurance company has hired a private investigator to conduct surveillance (sit outside your home in a car or van with tinted windows and take movies of you once you leave your front door). Although this is a form of harassment, it is legal. Any thing [...]
April 25, 2012
Educational/Vocational Training
One question we are often asked is whether the workers’ compensation insurance carrier or the employer is required to provide re-training once an injured worker can no longer perform the job he or she was doing when injured. The simple answer to that question is no. Nowhere in the Pennsylvania [...]
April 20, 2012
Case Law Summaries
American Road Lines and Lexington Insurance Co. v. WCAB (Royal), No. 2428 C.D. 2010 (Pa. Cmwlth, filed February 23, 2012). The Commonwealth Court looked to how employment status is determined in the trucking industry, noting that the relationships that exists between truck drivers, owner-operators, and motor-carriers, in addition to the governmental regulations and oversight, creates [...]
April 16, 2012
Case Law Summaries
Burks v. WCAB (City of Pittsburgh), 36 A.3d 639 (Pa. Cmwlth., 2012). Here, the claimant suffered from both a work-related injury and an unrelated medical condition. The claimant then applied for and began receiving Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits because of the latter conditions. After having the claimant examined by its doctor, the employer filed [...]
April 09, 2012
Commonly Asked Workers’s Compensation Questions
Can my employer try to terminate my workers’ compensation benefits? Yes. Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, your employer may file a petition to terminate your right to workers’ compensation benefits, if it can show that you are no longer disabled or that any remaining disability is unrelated to the injury. Your employer can win [...]
April 04, 2012
Two Recent Favorable Decisions
Attorney David Stern received a favorable decision from a Philadelphia area Workers’ Compensation Judge, which denied a Termination Petition filed by an employer. Mr. Stern has been representing the client since 2006, and has successfully defended against numerous petitions filed by the employer, including two prior termination petitions. In a separate case, we successfully obtained [...]
February 17, 2012
Benefits Reinstated One Day After Penalty Petition Filed
Samuel H. Pond met with a client whose benefits were stopped without warning. Mr. Pond looked through the Bureau documents and discovered a Notice of Compensation Payable, which had been overlooked by his client’s prior counsel. Under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, once an employer accepts liability for a work-related injury it cannot stop paying [...]
