Brilliant & Neiman LLC

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Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyer Blog

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Brilliant & Neiman
Glenn Neiman

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One of the common questions we hear from injured workers is “What happens if I retire?” or, more than you may imagine, “What happens if I move out of this Country?”  In either case, the answer is that your wage loss benefits are placed in serious jeopardy.  Medical benefits are not impacted by these things; this is just a risk to wage loss (“indemnity”) benefits. Normally, to reduce or eliminate workers’…
Several years ago, we related that the Pennsylvania legislature passed Act 46, which created a presumption that cancer suffered by veteran firefighters is related to their work duties.  This amendment to the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act was largely cheered by all (other than workers’ comp insurers, of course!).  The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania explained the presumption threshold as: “(A) firefighter-claimant asserting a cancer claim under Section 108(r) of the Act, 77 P.S. §27.1(r), must…
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As we discuss in our FAQs on our website, not every person who works in the State of Pennsylvania is covered by the PA Workers’ Compensation Act (Act).  Certain categories of employees are excluded from the protections of the Act for various reasons.  One of those exclusions applies to those employed in “domestic service.” This area was recently addressed by the Commonwealth Court of PA. In Van Leer v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Hudson),…
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Once an injured worker in PA establishes a right to workers’ compensation benefits, such benefits can only be stopped by the workers’ comp insurance carrier under certain circumstances.  Two of the most common involve litigation before a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) – proving to the WCJ that the injured worker is fully recovered from the work injury (termination of benefits), or that work is available to the injured worker at equal to, or higher, wages…
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When an injured worker in PA gets medical treatment for his or her work injury, and a bill is submitted to the workers’ compensation insurance carrier, the insurance carrier has three choices.  They can pay the bill (within 30 days), initiate the Utilization Review process (to challenge whether the treatment is reasonable and necessary), or it can dispute relatedness by filing a Petition to Review Medical Treatment.  Or, it would seem, there is a fourth…
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As far back as 2008, our blog reported on a marked increase in the number of total knee replacements that were being performed.  This trend seems to have been continuing, and, perhaps, not for the best.  According to a recent article in The Intelligencer, a rather high number of patients who elected to have a total knee replacement performed, were dissatisfied with the results.  According to the article: “Research suggests that up to one-third…
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In litigating a workers’ compensation case in Pennsylvania, we fight about many aspects of a case.  Certainly, we have had disputes over when an injured worker was actually “disabled” from his or her job. As highlighted in a recent decision by the Commonwealth Court of PA, though, sometimes the exact date on which disability begins can have great consequence. In Valley Stairs and Rails v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Parsons), the injured worker hurt…
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When the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania decides a case in the PA workers’ compensation arena, we often get some insight into an aspect of the law, or an interpretation of a section of the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act (Act).  Rarely do we see a case address two areas of significance.  So, when the Commonwealth Court issued a decision recently in the Kurpiewski v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Caretti, Inc.)  case, we were very excited.  We…
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Okay, so you get injured at work.  You get treatment with a doctor, maybe have a course of physical therapy, then you start to feel a little better.  You are not all better yet, and you cannot go back to your regular job, but maybe you could do some kind of work.  So the doctor releases you to light duty work.  What then? First, let’s talk about what does not happen.  If you are receiving…
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On our blog, and our website, we talk of how to help the injured worker, both through legal rights under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, and through news and developments in the medical field.  But, maybe the most helpful thing is to avoid the work injury in the first place. While typically, we keep things local to Pennsylvania work injuries, we were contacted by a site in the United Kingdom, which has a guide to…