In May 2016, we published an article listing the ten best and the ten worst states for subrogating workers’ compensation. Arizona was near the top because it didn’t allow reduction of the carrier’s lien for attorneys’ fees and provided for…
It seems that there are no lengths parties won’t go to in order to destroy what they perceive as the evil known as “subrogation.” Workers’ compensation subrogation professionals in Pennsylvania are familiar with the saga of the Domtar case, which…
Plaintiff-friendly judges and legislators in various states have gained strength and influence over the last twenty years, resulting in statutes and court decisions inimical to the subrogation and reimbursement rights of workers’ compensation carriers. North Dakota is fighting back. On…
Nebraska has recently become a battleground in the war against workers’ compensation subrogation being waged by trial lawyers. Nebraska is a “tweener” when it comes to workers’ compensation subrogation. It doesn’t provide a carrier with a first money right to…
Words matter. On May 22, 2017, the Ohio Court of Appeals paid attention to the specific wording in the Workers’ Compensation Act and ignored the traditional definition given to the term “third party” in workers’ compensation subrogation settings. In McKinney…
In Nevada, when a workers’ compensation carrier is subrogated to the rights of the worker under § 616C.215, the carrier has a lien on the “total proceeds” of any third-party recovery. N.R.S. § 616C.215(5). This is true whether the recovery is…
A long-standing controversy has been resolved and a major anti-subrogation obstacle in Pennsylvania has been overcome. The proverbial light bulb has gone on in the Quaker State. The ongoing debate in Pennsylvania over whether a workers’ compensation carrier can initiate…
Serrano v. Workers’ Comp. Appeal Bd. (Ametek, Inc.), 2017 WL 563317 (Pa. Comm. 2017). On March 6, 2006, a container of metal powders, with which Serrano was working, exploded, severely burning him. Serrano sued Aramark Uniform and Career Apparel, Inc.…
If a contest were held for the worst appellate decision of 2017, we might already have a winner. The recent unpublished Hawai’i Court of Appeals decision in Hawaiian Dredging Constr. Co., Inc. v. Fujikawa Assocs., Inc., 2017 WL 663540 (Haw.…
Trial lawyers in Nebraska had high hopes that a questionable Court of Appeals decision from early 2016 might reinject the equitable Made Whole Doctrine into Nebraska workers’ compensation subrogation and eliminate any right of the carrier to a future credit…