A SHORT HISTORY OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION, OR HOW WATCHING TV GAME SHOWS INFLUENCES THE CLAIMS DECISION-MAKING PROCESS TO ACCEPT OR DENY WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIMS
ConnorsO’Dell LLC By Kevin L. Connors, Esquire TABLE OF CONTENTS A Short History of Workers’ Compensation, or The End of the World As We Know It Claim Genesis David Letterman’s top Ten Comp Forms Without A Trace: Electronic Filing at the Bureau Jeopardy: “Medical Only” Claims The Biggest Losers: Pitfalls in Form Preparation Claim Transition: … Read more »
Employee Misclassification Issues
EMPLOYEE MISCLASSIFICATION ISSUES By Kevin L. Connors, Esquire The Problem: Critical distinctions exist between employees and independent contractors. If you hire it, it must be an employee. Historically, the lines distinguishing employees from independent contractors have been ambiguous in certain fields, to include construction, service-related industries, transportation and delivery services, maintenance and janitorial services, and… Read more »
DEFENDING SLIP AND FALLS
DEFENDING SLIP AND FALLS By Kevin L. Connors, Esquire Faced with a slip and fall personal injury claim, property owners and their insurers need to analyze several key elements in the course of evaluating and defending these highly fact-sensitive claims. With Pennsylvania Trial and Appellate Courts applying principles set forth in the Restatement (Second) of… Read more »
FORMOLOGY UNDER PENNSYLVANIA WORKERS’ COMPENSATION LAW
By Kevin L. Connors, Esquire In a brave and emboldened attempt to chart a Pennsylvania workers’ compensation claim by tracing the etiology of forms necessary to accept, deny, and/or administer the claim under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, this is intended to assist all Pennsylvania stakeholders, whether employers, insurance carriers, third-party administrators, as well as… Read more »
BEST PRACTICES: ANALYSIS OF PENNSYLVANIA’S TNCP
BEST PRACTICES: ANALYSIS OF PENNSYLVANIA’S TNCP By Kevin L. Connors, Esquire So, in the midst of all this compensation claims chaos, you have to ask yourself: do I feel lucky? Of course, Dirty Harry, played by Clint Eastwood in the 1971 crime avenger epic, possessed sufficient firepower to answer that question with a big bang…. Read more »
Refresh Yourself: The Personal Comfort Doctrine in Workers’ Compensation
By: Kevin L. Connors, Esquire I. INTRODUCTION: Universal throughout workers’ compensation statutes, the personal comfort doctrine is a real, and sometimes amusingly interesting, result-oriented principle ubiquitous in workers’ compensation decisions and rulings, at times testing the boundaries of compensability, as employees attending to personal needs, for comfort or sustenance, to include work-time breaks for eating,… Read more »
By: Kevin L. Connors, Esquire Pennsylvania 2021 Statewide Average Weekly Wage Rates
Effective January 1, 2021, Pennsylvania has raised the statewide average weekly wage maximum to $1,130.00, with per annum exposure of $58,760.00. The medium tier for 2021 will be two-thirds of any wage between $1,695.00 and $847.51, resulting in potential exposure between $58,754.12 (high) and $29,381.82 (low). The lower tier for the average weekly wage will… Read more »
