Workers' Compensation

NEWS

Congratulations to Niki Ingram (Philadelphia, PA) who was named vice president of the Philadelphia Bar Foundation. Niki also serves as the Foundation’s Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer. 

Congratulations to Michele Punturi (Philadelphia, PA) who was approved for nomination by The Board of Governors of the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers as a Fellow of the College. Election as a Fellow represents the recognition by colleagues that Michele distinguished herself as an outstanding professional who made a sustained contribution to the field of workers’ compensation and met the College’s standards of integrity, professionalism and character. Michele will be formally inducted on March 5, 2022. 
 

RESULTS*

Jennifer Callahan (Scranton, PA) received a favorable Appeal Board Decision affirming the Workers’ Compensation Judge’s decision granting a termination of the claimant’s benefits and denying the claimant’s petition to review to expand the work injury.

Robert Schenk (Philadelphia, PA) received a favorable decision in a case where the claimant was a landscaper who alleged a work-related low back injury. The claimant gave an inconsistent account of how it happened and when he gave notice. Robert presented five fact witnesses from the employer, two of whom testified the claimant never gave notice, and three of whom all testified he told them he was going to fabricate this work injury because at the end of the season he would not be entitled to unemployment compensation benefits. (Coincidentally, the testimony revealed the claimant did not receive unemployment compensation benefits). The IME physician found that the claimant fully recovered from any injury he sustained. The claimant subsequently had two surgeries with $750,000 in medical bills (unadjusted). The Workers’ Compensation Judge found that the claimant sustained a low back sprain and then terminated his benefits as of the date of the IME.

Frank Wickersham (King of Prussia, PA) successfully convinced the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board to affirm a judge’s decision granting a petition to terminate benefits. The Board rejected the claimant’s argument that the testimony of the employer’s medical expert did not support the judge’s finding of a termination of benefits for a low back injury, because the employer’s medical expert testified that if the claimant was asymptomatic in her back prior to her slip and fall in a kitchen at work, the injury may have aggravated a pre-existing, underlying condition in her lumbar spine. But, at the judge’s level, the claimant admitted under cross examination that she had a prior work injury to her low back she did not report, which caused her to experience ongoing low back symptoms. The Board noted that the potential expansion of the claimant’s low back injury based on the testimony of employer’s medical expert was dependent on whether the claimant had no prior low back complaints, which the claimant said she did (and failed to disclose). The Board, thus, held that the judge correctly found that the claimant’s low back injury was limited to that of a lumbar strain and sprain from which she was fully recovered. 

Judd Woytek (King of Prussia, PA) convinced claimant’s counsel to withdraw a claim petition for lack of jurisdiction for an alleged injury that occurred in New York as there was no true basis for jurisdiction in Pennsylvania.

*Prior Results Do Not Guarantee A Similar Outcome
 

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