Archive for April, 2015
Court Allows Claimant to Reopen Previously Dismissed Claim Based on Dishonesty of Claimant’s Attorney
Cases dismissed under N.J.S.A. 34:15-54 for lack of prosecution are permanently closed if not reinstated within one year. The matter of Kost v. GPU Energy, A-0858-13T3 (App. Div. 2015) offers one exception to the rule. Richard Kost filed seven claims against GPU Energy/JCP&L in 2003. He also filed a parallel civil action which was pending […]
PIP Carrier’s Claim Petition Is Rejected for Failure to Show Work Connection
What can a PIP carrier do when it believes the bills it has paid arise from a workers’ compensation case but the injured party has never filed a claim? In New Jersey, the PIP carrier has a right to file a workers’ compensation claim petition in the name of the injured worker, but there is […]
Appellate Court Fine Tunes Standards for Motions for Medical and Temporary Benefits
Sometimes the seemingly minor cases have significant long-term impact. The case of Amedeo v. United Parcel Service, A-1013-13T2 (App. Div. April 8, 2015) may be one of those cases. Thomas Amedeo suffered a work injury in 2009 in the employment of UPS. He filed a workers’ compensation claim petition and ultimately received an award of […]
Misuse Of The Term “Aggravation” Causes Huge Overpayments In Workers’ Compensation
SCENARIO ONE: An employee has a preexisting arthritic knee condition that his personal physician says will require imminent knee replacement. Three months later this employee steps off a truck at work and feels pain in the knee. He reports the incident to his employer, who sends him for treatment. The doctor orders an MRI, stating […]
Court Holds that Employee With Restrictions Who Was Terminated Should Have Chance to Prove Reasonable Accommodations Could Have Been Made by Employer
Many employers have 100% healed policies that can redound to their detriment in court. That was the situation in Kauffman v. Petersen Health Care, VII, LLC, 769 F.3d 958 (7th Cir. 2014). Debra Kauffman worked as one of two hairdressers at Mason Point Nursing Home in central Illinois. On Mondays and Tuesdays, she would wheel […]
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