Pennsylvania Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Abes Baumann Client in Landmark Workers’ Compensation Case
Ruling Expected to Help Thousands of Injured Workers Secure Greater Disability Benefits The Pennsylvania Supreme Court last week declared a key provision in Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Act “unconstitutional in its entirety” in its ruling on the case Protz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board. “This is the most significant workers’ compensation ruling in Pennsylvania in the Read More
Who Decides if a Doctor is Lying?
Recently, Abes Baumann argued a case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court regarding credibility determinations for physicians who perform Impairment Rating Evaluations. In the case of Rhodes vs.WCAB, Tom Baumann argued that the Workers’ Compensation Judge was correct in refusing to convert the claimant’s disability benefits from total disability to partial disability. Under the Worker’s Compensation Read More
Claims Against the King
King! What King? There is no royalty in Pennsylvania, correct? No, there is not. However, when it comes to claims against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, or its subsidiaries, our law harkens back to English law, making use of concepts from another age and another society. Just as the King and Queen in England were generally Read More
The Phantom Insurance Company
We all know that one must have insurance to drive the car. However, when you get in an accident, the other guy might only have minimal insurance. Therefore, Pennsylvania residents have the option of purchasing under-insured motorist coverage (UIM coverage). This coverage is designed to permit you to recover more than the limit of the other guy’s insurance. Read More
“Idiopathic” Falls Are Compensable in PA
“Idiopathic” in medical terms means “unknown cause.” But in the workers’ compensation field, “idiopathic” means “unique to the individual.” Pennsylvania is one of the few states that find an employee who suffers an “idiopathic fall” while on the job, can collect PA workers’ compensation benefits. The two leading cases in PA that granted benefits for Read More
Pennsylvania Supreme Court: “A job must be open and available to count in a Labor Market Survey.”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has recently issued a ruling that will help injured workers who are faced with labor market surveys by a vocational expert hired by the workers compensation carrier. In Phoenixville Hosp. v. Workers’ Comp. Appeal Bd., 81 A.3d 830 (Pa. 2013), the court concluded that a job must be actually open and Read More