In Geological Assessment & Leasing v. O'Hara , 780 S.E.2d 647 (W.Va., 2015), the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia considered three consolidated appeals, each arising out of a circuit court's ruling that a plaintiff's claim that a defendant engaged in the unauthorized practice of law can never, as a matter of law, be referred to...
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C&W Journal
May 28, 2016
Digging Deep to the Rock: WV Supreme Court Solidifies Arbitration Agreements Under the FAA
May 28, 2016
Commercial Driving Scores Back on Public Display
On December 4, 2015, President Obama signed into law the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act), which is the first federal law in more than ten years to provide long-term funding...
May 25, 2016
New Jersey Premises Liability Update — Recent Decisions on the...
Anyone familiar with New Jersey's premises liability law is also familiar with the mode-of-operation liability principles applied to cases where a dangerous condition of the property has been...
March 04, 2016
Heart Attack Case—Circumstantial Evidence of Physical Exertion...
In the case of Robert Dietz (deceased) by Judith Dietz v. WCAB (Lower Bucks County Joint Municipal Authority ), No. 2051 C.D. 2014, 2015 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 532, the Commonwealth Court addressed the...
March 04, 2016
Complaints of Cumulative Trauma Constitute a Work Injury
On November 23, 2015, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held that an employee’s notice to his employer, stating that he was experiencing back pain as a result of cumulative trauma, served as...
March 02, 2016
Retroactivity of the 2011 PIP Amendments, a Question of Legislative...
The New Jersey Automobile Insurance Freedom of Choice and Cost Containment Act of 1984, L. 1983, c. 362, provides for a statutory right of recovery of personal injury protection (PIP) benefits...
March 02, 2016
Touhy Regulations in Malpractice Actions
The Department of Health routinely inspects healthcare facilities to determine compliance with state and federal regulations, sometimes in response to complaints from an aggrieved family member....
January 06, 2016
More Flexibility Established in the Requirement to Send a Notice of...
In the case of the School District of Philadelphia v. WCAB (Hilton ), 117 A.3d 232 (2015), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court looked at the defendant’s obligation to provide the claimant with a Notice...
January 06, 2016
NJ Appellate Division Update: Off-Duty Employee’s Trip to Cash...
The Superior Court of New Jersey’s Appellate Division recently revisited the oft-argued and fact-sensitive arena of “course and scope” when it reversed the NJ WC Division’s decision in the matter...
January 06, 2016
Negligence Concepts in Strict Liability: No Longer a Small-Town...
In pursuing products liability cases, plaintiffs’ attorneys have long asserted that pursuant to Pennsylvania case law, negligence concepts have no place in strict liability cases as a means of...
January 06, 2016
Minors Now Have an Independent Right to Recover Medical Expenses
For many years prior to 2008, Pennsylvania has repeatedly refused to grant an independent right to minors for the recovery of medical expenses prior to the age of majority (18 years of age). The...
November 28, 2015
Exception to Requirement of Notice of Ability to Return to Work ...
Generally, the issuance of a Notice of Ability to Return to Work (PA Form LIBC-757) is a prerequisite to obtaining a modification or suspension of a claimant’s benefits in the context of Claim,...
November 28, 2015
Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court Declares IRE Statute Unconstitutional
Section 306(a.2) requires that a claimant submit to an Impairment Rating Evaluation (IRE) after the expiration of the claimant’s receipt of 104 weeks of temporary total disability (TTD) benefits....
November 28, 2015
Authorized Knee Repair Does Not Automatically Create Compensability...
When an employer authorizes a knee repair surgery, could it be liable for an eventual total knee replacement when there is evidence of pre-existing degenerative arthritis? It has often been...
November 28, 2015
Not So Fast!—West Virginia Supreme Court Takes “Final” Out of Final...
In State ex rel. First State Bank v. Hustead , 2015 LEXIS 974 (Oct. 8, 2015), the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia found that a bank was not entitled to a writ of prohibition as to the...
November 28, 2015
Reservation of Rights Does Not Reserve Insurer’s Right to Consent...
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Babcock & Wilcox v. American Nuclear Insurers , 2015 Pa. LEXIS 1551 (July 21, 2015), a case of first impression, addressed the issue of whether an insured...
September 28, 2015
Imminent Surgery Does Not Mean That a Claimant Has Not Reached...
Even when a claimant has not reached full recovery and has not returned to work in any capacity, there are still avenues available to reduce workers’ compensation exposure. One of these avenues is...
September 28, 2015
Plead First; Discovery Second
In Becker v. Smith & Nephew, Inc. , the District Court of New Jersey recently held that plaintiffs could not compel answers to pre-complaint discovery in order to form the basis of the...
September 28, 2015
Informed Consent Deemed Irrelevant in Certain Cases
In Brady v. Urbas , 111 A.3d 1155 (Pa. 2015), the Pennsylvania Supreme Court affirmed the Superior Court’s decision to vacate judgment in favor of the defendant physician, Dr. Urbas, and remand...
September 28, 2015
What Has the NJ Legislature Been Up to Lately?
New Jersey recently passed a noteworthy insurance fraud law and is about to pass an anti-indemnification law in the field of transportation. First and foremost, it is now an insurance fraud in New...
September 28, 2015
IME Letters and Specific Questions to Be Answered
In a recent case, the question of whether the IME (Independent Medical Evaluation) letter asking specific questions is discoverable by the claimant’s counsel came about. As you may know, the IME...