Blog: Workers Compensation

Can you get workers’ comp if you get hurt helping someone else?

Mar 23, 2016

That's a question that will soon go before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. An appeals court has ruled that an injured worker was, in fact, eligible for compensation for injuries sustained as he tried to help a fellow worker who had fallen into a pit of concrete and subsequently died. The worker's employer, Pipeline Systems, and the employer's insurer, Continental Western Insurance, had initially denied the worker's claim, saying he was not a trained first responder...

How do I appeal a workers’ compensation denial?

Feb 16, 2016

If your workers’ compensation claim has been denied, it’s understandable that you may be frustrated and discouraged. But you shouldn’t give up: many claims that are initially denied get approved on appeal. But appealing your decision means filing the right paperwork to the right people in the appropriate window of time. This is where it helps to have the assistance of an experienced workers’ compensation attorney. The first thing to know is that once you...

What if you’re offered a job while collecting wage-loss benefits?

Jan 14, 2016

Receiving workers' compensation benefits, including wage-loss benefits, can be a great relief when you've been injured on the job and are unable to work for a period of time. Having the financial breathing room and access to medical care you need without having to file a personal-injury lawsuit against your employer are some of the very reasons that workers' compensation benefits even exist. But that much-needed respite and recovery can be interrupted if your employer...

What happens if you’re injured out of state?

Dec 30, 2015

It depends. Originally, workers' compensation laws in Pennsylvania were intended to apply only to workers who actually worked within the state. Those laws have been expanded over time to include people who work in other states under certain conditions. Simply living in Pennsylvania while working in another state does not necessarily qualify a person to collect Pennsylvania workers' compensation benefits. A recent court case illustrates this point. A truck driver who lived in Pennsylvania was...

What is an “occupational disease”?

Dec 3, 2015

An occupational disease is an illness that develops in a worker as a result of his or her repeated exposure to a hazardous work condition. As opposed to the acute and traumatic nature of common construction site accidents, which we discussed in our previous post, many occupational diseases develop from long-term cumulative exposure to a work condition. For example, exposure to fine airborne particles, chemicals or biological agents are all risk factors for certain occupational...

Nov 12, 2015

Workers' compensation was set up during a time when most work injuries were trauma-related. Today, deaths from occupational illness far outnumber deaths from work injuries. But the system often fails workers who become ill at work because of acute or chronic exposure to a toxin or other dangerous work condition. Part of the problem is that the nature of illness related to toxic exposure doesn't always cooperate with regulations governing workers' compensation claims. An exposure-related...

PennDOT employee killed, four others injured in crash

Jul 21, 2015

Tragedy struck the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, workers and workers' families late last week. A PennDOT worker was killed and four other workers injured in a single-vehicle crash in a rural, northern part of the state, about 250 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. According to news reports, investigators have yet to pinpoint the cause of the crash. The 53-year-old driver apparently lost control of the state vehicle as it rounded a curve. It then struck a...

Worker injured in Youngstown working on YSU Stadium

Jul 17, 2015

A workplace accident on the campus of Youngstown State University has injured one construction worker. The worker was working at Stambaugh Stadium in Youngstown, Ohio when he fell. The impact of the collision caused the construction worker to sustain head injuries. The construction worker was working on the bleachers of the stadium for a company based out of Indianapolis, Indiana. The injured man was walking between the rows of the concrete bleachers near the top...

Extraordinary attempt to deny workers’ comp benefits rejected

Jul 7, 2015

A Pennsylvania construction worker was minding his own business, doing his job on a worksite at a sewage plant about 40 miles south of New Castle. Then he found out that a plant employee had fallen into the concrete pit on the jobsite. He rushed to try to rescue the fallen man. Unfortunately, he and two others who mounted the rescue effort were too late: the plant worker was dead. As the construction worker climbed...

Ohio launching pilot workers’ comp program to speed recovery

Jun 25, 2015

When a workplace injury takes place, most Ohio workers are entitled to get health care to treat the injury, have their medical bills paid, get rehabilitation services if needed and to receive a portion of their wages while they recover. The state of Ohio is trying a new program designed to lower the costs of workers' compensation to employers by getting employees back on the job sooner. The administrator of the Ohio Bureau of Workers’...