Workers’ Compensation – Initially Unknown Cause – Difficult Diagnosis – Rotator Cuff Tear
It took a while for claimant’s doctors to figure out that her chest, shoulder and arm pain were coming from a work-related shoulder injury and even longer for them to figure out that she had suffered a rotator cuff tear, most likely at her job as a laminator, where she lifted heavy rolls of printing […]
Workers’ Compensation – Maximum Medical Improvement – Continued Medical Benefits – Back & Knee Injury – Temporary Total Disability
Even if claimant had reached maximum medical improvement, this was not dispositive as to whether she was entitled to continued medical treatment. In any event, the record showed that claimant had not reached maximum medical improvement as to the knee and back injuries she sustained when she slipped in a puddle of oil and water […]
Worker who suffered injuries rewarded $1.25M
On March 25, 2021, the plaintiff, truck driver Bryan Curtis Roberson, was picking up a load in Georgetown, S.C., for Mercer Transportation Co., when he suffered substantial injuries after being struck by a load that fell off a truck. Roberson sustained injuries to his head, neck, and brain, as well as injuries to his right […]
Worker who was struck in eye at work settles for $650K
A worker who was struck in the eye while at work reached a $650,000 settlement. The plaintiff was working at a major manufacturing plant in the lower part of South Carolina when he was struck in the eye by a co-worker with a paint roller. According to the plaintiff’s counsel, Christopher Hart from Hart […]
Workers’ Compensation – Repetitive Motion Injury – Firefighter – Timely Reporting
Where the record shows that the claimant’s duties as a firefighter included lifting heavy objects on a regular basis, the claimant’s evidence showed a repetitive-motion injury to his back. It appears that the Workers’ Compensation Commission equated activities that are “repetitive” with activities that must be performed on a near constant basis to find that, […]
Workers’ Compensation – Causation – Prior Back Injury – Fraud in the Application Defense
While working for Richtex Brick in 1997, Claimant suffered a back injury which resolved. When he applied to work for respondent Michelin North America in 2017, Claimant did not list Richtex Brick as a previous employer, and on a medical form he answered “no” when asked whether he had ever had medical attention for back […]
Workers’ Compensation – Prior Back Injury – Application Falsehood – 20-Year Gap
Although the respondent-employer showed that the claimant-employee falsely said on his post-hire medical questionnaire that he had never sought medical attention for a prior back injury or back pain, and although the employer showed that it relied on this falsehood, the employer failed to show a causal connection between the claimant’s 1997 back injury and […]
Workers’ Compensation – Appeals – Treating Physician – TTD
In a 2014 order, a single commissioner’s order summarily stated that the respondent-Claimant was not entitled to benefits under S.C. Code Ann. §§ 42-9-10 (total disability), -20 (partial disability), -30 (scheduled recovery), -210 (payments made by an employer when they were not due), -260 (temporary total disability) and 42-15-60 (medical treatment). These conclusions were based […]
Workers’ Compensation – Back Injury – General Disability Claim – Radiating Pain & Depression
The Claimant suffered a compensable back injury and was assigned a 40 percent impairment rating to the spine and a 36 percent rating to the whole person. The record contains no fewer than 40 physician notes about Claimant having nerve pain in places other than her back; furthermore, her treating physician not only added ten […]
Workers’ Compensation – Death Benefits – Causation – Smoke Inhalation & Influenza
The Appellate Panel of the Workers’ Compensation Commission mischaracterized the medical evidence of causation and ignored other evidence that the smoke-inhalation injury, which the decedent-deputy suffered during three 12-hour shifts at a massive fire, was a proximate cause of his death. We reverse the Appellate Panel’s decision, which overturned the single commissioner’s award of death [[...]
Workers’ comp case settled for $1.15M after severe car crash
A plaintiff who T-boned an oncoming vehicle has settled their workers’ compensation claim against their insurance carrier for $1.15 million, their attorneys report. Christopher Hart of Hart Law in Columbia and Justin Bamberg of Bamberg Legal in Bamberg represented the injured worker, whose name was withheld pursuant to a confidentiality agreement. Hart said that […]
Man crushed by truck at work receives $2.2M
A man who was crushed by a truck during his first day on the job as a warehouse manager will collect over $2.2 million in settlements with multiple insurers, his attorney reports. Charles Condon Jr. of the Charlie Condon Law Firm in Mount Pleasant reports that his client, whose name was withheld, was trying to […]
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