By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville Earlier this week, the Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board affirmed a pair of trial court rulings about an employer’s right to a medical examination and the exclusion of expert testimony when an attorney didn’t comply with a scheduling deadline. The Board held oral argument in both cases last month. … Continue reading Appeals Board Releases Two Opinions from October Oral Arguments
Category: Attorney Jane Salem
Board holds oral arguments in three cases
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville The Appeals Board held oral arguments yesterday by videoconference on the topics of an employee’s proper impairment rating, an employer’s right to a medical examination, and whether a court properly ruled that a party should be prohibited from introducing expert testimony at trial. First up was Hart v. ThyssenKrupp … Continue reading Board holds oral arguments in three cases
Board Clarifies Date of Injury in Mental Injury Claim for Jurisdictional Purposes
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville Last week, the Appeals Board ruled on an issue of first impression that the date of injury in mental injury claims for jurisdictional purposes is the date of the identifiable work-related event or events resulting in a sudden or unusual stimulus. The ruling rejected an injured worker’s contention that … Continue reading Board Clarifies Date of Injury in Mental Injury Claim for Jurisdictional Purposes
Injuries from fallen tree aren’t compensable
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville Last week, the Appeals Board affirmed a trial court ruling from an expedited hearing that an employee’s injuries weren’t work-related, when those injuries were from a tree falling on him as he exited a portable toilet next to his job site. Brett Rosasco was painting a home exterior. He … Continue reading Injuries from fallen tree aren’t compensable
Board Releases Opinion Allowing MIRR Evaluation to Proceed
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville When a party requests an evaluation from the Bureau’s Medical Impairment Rating Registry, the opposing party can’t object on the basis that the party manufactured a dispute over the rating by hiring an expert to perform a records review. The Appeals Board announced this legal principle yesterday in Gray … Continue reading Board Releases Opinion Allowing MIRR Evaluation to Proceed
Board Reverses Causation Decision in Complex Occupational Disease Case
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville Last week, the Appeals Board reversed a trial court determination finding medical causation in a case where the employee alleged liver, kidney and cardiac conditions as occupational diseases. According to the Board, the lower court should’ve accepted the employer’s experts’ opinions because they were better qualified and didn’t rely … Continue reading Board Reverses Causation Decision in Complex Occupational Disease Case
Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction Precludes an Election of Remedies
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville The Supreme Court Special Workers’ Compensation Appeals Panel revived a case earlier this week, holding that an injured worker didn’t elect to pursue his claim in Georgia when that state’s tribunal found he didn’t have subject matter jurisdiction. The ruling reinstates the decision of Tennessee Court of Workers’ Compensation … Continue reading Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction Precludes an Election of Remedies
Opinion affirms alleged mental injury
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville On Tuesday, the Appeals Board released the last opinion from the cases at the March 24 oral arguments reviewing expedited hearing orders. The opinion, Mollica v. EHHI Holdings, reiterates the importance of obtaining medical proof when causation is disputed. Facts Gena Mollica hurt her back in 2017 working as … Continue reading Opinion affirms alleged mental injury
Appeals Board reaffirms Direct and Natural Consequence Rule
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville The Appeals Board released two opinions last Friday, deciding cases they heard at oral argument on March 24. In the first opinion, Hudgins v. Global Personnel Solutions, Natacha Hudgins injured her knee in 2016 while working at a battery manufacturing plant. Global, a temporary employment agency, accepted the claim … Continue reading Appeals Board reaffirms Direct and Natural Consequence Rule
Board Releases Opinion on Panels, Medical Causation
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville The Appeals Board released another opinion from its March 24 oral arguments last week. Barnes v. Jack Cooper Transport, a review of an expedited hearing order, offers guidance on improper panels and medical causation. William Barnes, a truck driver, reported to Jack Cooper Transport that his left knee gave … Continue reading Board Releases Opinion on Panels, Medical Causation
Board affirms in Ibarra v. Amazon Fulfillment Services
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville Yesterday, the Appeals Board released its first opinion from the cases on oral argument last week. In Ibarra v. Amazon Fulfillment Services, the Board resolved three issues. The first was notice. The Workers’ Compensation Law requires written notice of a work-related injury unless an employer has actual notice. Amazon … Continue reading Board affirms in Ibarra v. Amazon Fulfillment Services
More oral arguments
By Jane Salem, staff atorney, Nashville Last Tuesday, the Appeals Board held telephonic oral arguments in six cases. I previously wrote about the morning cases. The following summarizes the afternoon’s cases, which all involved review of expedited hearings and medical causation issues. In Barnes v. Jack Cooper Transportation Co., the employer appealed an order for … Continue reading More oral arguments
The Show Must Go On
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville The Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board held oral arguments by phone rather than the traditional in-person appearances on Tuesday. Counsel gave compelling arguments and withstood some fairly rigorous questioning from the judges, and decorum was maintained throughout, despite the unusual circumstances. What follows is a brief recap of the … Continue reading The Show Must Go On
Learning the rules of ‘ritualized battle,’ part two
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville Welcome back to my two-part series on civil procedure in the Tennessee Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims. You did re-read the cases I mentioned in the last blog post in their entirety and you drew your own conclusions, right? Thanks. I ended the last post with a recap of … Continue reading Learning the rules of ‘ritualized battle,’ part two
Learning the rules of ‘ritualized battle’
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville When I used to teach civil procedure as a law professor, I would begin the year by telling my students that “civil procedure is the etiquette of ritualized battle.” The phrase, which did not originate with me, captured the point that peaceful, developed societies resolve disputes by law rather … Continue reading Learning the rules of ‘ritualized battle’
Supreme Court Panel Opinions, 2019
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville Welcome back once again to our review of last year’s workers’ compensation appellate opinions. This article will summarize the 2019 opinions from the Tennessee Supreme Court Special Workers’ Compensation Panel. First up are appeals from the Court of Workers' Compensation Claims applying the “new law.” Then I’ll mention a … Continue reading Supreme Court Panel Opinions, 2019
Revisiting 2019 Appeals Board Decisions
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville Welcome back to our annual year-in-review series of articles. This post will look at last year’s Appeals Board cases on compensability, defenses, civil procedure, evidence, and fees. Starting with compensability, the Board found no exception to the Coming-and-Going rule in Smith v. Macy’s Corp. Servs. The employee suffered injuries … Continue reading Revisiting 2019 Appeals Board Decisions
A Look Back at 2019 Appeals Board Opinions
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Nashville Happy New Year! It’s become tradition for me to kick things off with a recap of the previous year’s appellate cases. But first, another tradition: the disclaimer. Remember that I’m a staff attorney, and I’m not speaking on behalf of the Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims. What follows is … Continue reading A Look Back at 2019 Appeals Board Opinions
Good Bye and Good Luck, Judge Davidson
By Jane Salem, staff attorney, Court of Workers' Compensation Claims, Nashville When Judge Marshall L. Davidson, III, reported for his first day as presiding judge of the Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, he entered the building and asked the guards how to find the appellate court clerk’s office. They looked puzzled and told him there … Continue reading Good Bye and Good Luck, Judge Davidson
Appeals Board Considers Electronic “Presence” at Independent Medical Examinations
By Jane Salem, Staff Attorney, Nashville A pair of injured employees wants to have their physician “present” at an independent medical examination via videoconference or live-streaming. In one case, the judge allowed ordered that videoconferencing be arranged; in another case, a different judge declined to order it. Who got it right? The Tennessee Workers Compensation … Continue reading Appeals Board Considers Electronic “Presence” at Independent Medical Examinations
From the Bench 