Practice: Workers’ Compensation

• Workers' Compensation

  The Impact of Pain on a Permanent & Total Disability Claim

  • March 19, 2020
  • By Allen & Gooch
  

  Prior to the 1983 amendments to the Workers’ Compensation statute, pain played a large role in permanent and total disability claims. For example, the 1980 Louisiana Supreme Court in Whitaker v. Church’s Fried Chicken, Inc. presented an injured janitor that burned his legs with hot grease, causing severe pain. The court found the claimant to be permanently and total […]

• Workers' Compensation

  Return to Work – Is a Physician Review Required?

  • January 22, 2020
  • By Allen & Gooch
  

  When an employee is injured on the job, the goal of any employer is to assist in getting their employee returned to work. This process often includes consultations with a vocational rehabilitation counselor and can also just involve the employer presenting the employee with a modified duty offer of employment. When the employee with a […]

• Workers' Compensation

  Occupational Diseases

  • December 18, 2019
  • By Allen & Gooch
  

  Occupational diseases are those that manifest as a result the regular course and scope of employment. Specifically, La. R.S. 23:1031.1 defines an occupational disease as: An occupational disease means only that disease or illness which is due to causes and conditions characteristic of and peculiar to the particular trade, occupation, process, or employment in which the employee is […]

• Workers' Compensation

  Second Injury Fund – Denied for Lack of Knowledge

  • November 12, 2019
  • By Allen & Gooch
  

  The Louisiana Second Injury Fund is designed to protect those employers that hire an employee with a pre-existing permanent partial disability in the event the employee is subsequently injured on the job. The protection afforded to an employer is provided in the form of a reimbursement if, and only if, the employer can satisfy strict […]

• Workers' Compensation

  Allen & Gooch Obtains another Victory for the Employer’s Right to Choice of Pharmacy

  • September 18, 2019
  • By Allen & Gooch

  Allen & Gooch was recently successful in defending the employer’s right to choose the pharmacy where a workers’ compensation claimant must fill prescriptions. The Louisiana Supreme Court recently ruled in Soileau v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 19-0040 (La. 6/26/19), __ So.3d __, 2019 WL 2750869, that the claimant’s motion seeking a hearing as to whether she […]

• Workers' Compensation

  Improper Use of 1010 Form For Physician Referral

  • August 21, 2019
  • By Allen & Gooch
  

  As anyone who has practiced or worked in the area of Louisiana Workers Compensation can attest, there are an abundance of state forms. Each form has a specific purpose and exists to create a streamlined approach for how each claim is handled through resolution. However, an increasingly frustrating and confusing misuse of the 1010 Form […]

• Workers' Compensation

  Acquiring Information from a Claimant’s Treating Physician

  • August 20, 2019
  • By Allen & Gooch

  What sort of communication can the adjuster, nurse case manager and voc rehab counselor have with the doctor without having to put the attorney or injured worker on notice? What does the law say? Louisiana Revised Statute 23:1127 addresses, in part, this question. Specifically, the stature indicates that a health care provider, without the necessity […]

• Workers' Compensation

  Social Media – Discoverability & Admissibility

  • July 17, 2019
  • By Allen & Gooch
  

  A condensed review of Allen & Gooch’s presentation from the 2019 Louisiana Claims Association Conference What is Social Media? One of the biggest issues related to the use of social media evidence in the courts is the lack of a clear definition of what constitutes “social media.” The legislature has attempted to define this term […]

• Workers' Compensation

  Using Maximum Medical Improvement to Request Independent Medical Examinations

  • April 17, 2019
  • By Allen & Gooch
  

  Doctors generally use the term “maximum medical improvement” or “MMI” to signify that a patient is as well as he/she will get with the aid of conventional medicine and treatment. Under General Maritime Law, a Jones Act seaman is guaranteed certain benefits until a physician determines that he/she has reached maximum medical improvement. However, maximum […]

• Workers' Compensation

  Importance of Part-Time & Seasonal Employment Acknowledgement Forms in Workers’ Comp

  • March 20, 2019
  • By Allen & Gooch

  Calculating Average Weekly Wage One of the first things that a payor (employer or insurer) must do once a workers’ compensation claim has been accepted as compensable is to correctly calculate the claimant’s average weekly wage and compensation rate in connection with the payment of indemnity benefits. If this is done incorrectly, the payor faces […]