Workers’ Compensation

• COVID-19

  Workers’ Compensation Legislative Update: COVID-19 & Legislative Session Recap

  • July 22, 2020
  • By Allen & Gooch

  Governor John Bel Edwards issued multiple orders over the past several months due to COVID-19, that affected workers’ compensation in Louisiana. All legal deadlines were suspended from March 17, 2020 until June 15, 2020, and liberative and peremptive prescription delays were suspended from March 17, 2020 until July 5, 2020. All legal delays, including prescription, […]

• COVID-19

  The Independent Medical Examination – Can It Be Used to Address Causation?

  • June 26, 2020
  • By Allen & Gooch

  Under the Louisiana Workers’ Compensation Act, both the employee and the employer have a right to choose their own physicians. While the employee has a right to an initial choice of treating physician, the employer has the right to choose its own physician in order to examine the employee and render a Second Medical Opinion […]

• COVID-19

  OSHA Update: COVID-19

  • May 28, 2020
  • By Allen & Gooch

  New guidance from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) regarding COVID-19 became effective on May 26, 2020. This new guidance rescinds and replaces the previous COVID-19 guidance issued on April 10, 2020, and is intended to be effective until further notice. Under the new guidance, a COVID-19 illness is a recordable incident that must be recorded […]

• COVID-19

  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 […]

• COVID-19

  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 […]

• COVID-19

  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 […]

• COVID-19

  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 […]

• COVID-19

  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 […]

• COVID-19

  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 […]

• COVID-19

  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 […]