Two reports released this month have had some startling findings regarding the state of workers’ compensation benefits in Massachusetts and nationwide. One report was conducted by a group called ProPublica, an investigative journalism organization, in conjunction with NPR. The other report was conducted by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).…
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently reached a decision in the case of Litchfield’s Case, 86 Mass. App. Ct. 216 (2014), which is instructive on the matter of workers’ compensation awards for psychological complications arising out of work-related injuries. In the case, Robert M. Litchfield had been working as a heavy equipment…
In a recent Massachusetts workers’ compensation case, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts issued a ruling on the propriety of an appellate panel reversing a commissioner’s decision in a complex medical case regarding whether continued disability benefits were proper. In the opinion, In Re Villiard’s Case, Mass. App. Ct. (2014), the employee…
The Massachusetts Court of Appeals made a ruling recently in a workers’ compensation case that sheds some light on what happens when new evidence regarding workers’ compensation injuries comes to light decades after the incident occurs. In the case, In re Baillargeon’s Case, Mass. Ct. App. (2014), the employee Dorothy Baillargeon suffered an injury in 1978 during…
In a recent federal case, Cavicchi v. Raytheon Company, the district court had before it several issues arising out of an employment-related injury, which implicated the exclusivity of workers’ compensation benefits. The case arose out of an incident in which the employee fell on a staircase at work and then…
The Appeals Court of Massachusetts recently issued a brief decision in a workers’ compensation case, In re Okraska’s Case, Mass Ct. App. (2014), which may become problematic for employees living with back issues. The case does not contain much factual information, but based on the discussion in the opinion, it…
A recent decision by the Appeals Court of Massachusetts in In re Kelbe’s Case, Mass. Appeals Court (2014), offers a fairly comprehensive overview of the concept of the “Going and Coming Rule” in workers’ compensation cases, which precludes financial recovery in employee personal injury cases. The opinion began with a review of the…
In 2011, the federal government launched a nationwide initiative with the goal of gaining states’ participation in a program that seeks to address the problem of worker misclassification. Misclassification occurs when employers classify employees as something else, such as an independent contractor. This can be a problem because independent contractors are not entitled to…
The Massachusetts Appeals Court made a ruling in the recent case of Pagan v. Haddad, Mass. App. Ct. (2014), that illustrates the exclusivity of workers’ compensation payments under Massachusetts law. In the case, the plaintiff employee had brought a civil suit against his employer due to an injury he sustained while…
The Massachusetts Appeals Court recently reached an opinion in the case of Nguyen v. Eastern Connection Operating, Inc., Mass. App. Ct. (2014), which elucidates two potentially common issues in workers’ compensation cases: whether classifying a worker as an independent contractor can circumvent required coverage for employees, and whether a workers’ compensation rights…