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In Virginia, nursing services, whether rendered in a hospital or at home, are included among the medical benefits that an employer and carrier must furnish for injured workers, provided those services constitute “medical attention” and are “necessary.” What may come as a surprise is that the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act does not actually define what “medical attention” and “necessary” mean in this context. For close to 40 years, the Commission has used a 4-prong test laid out in Warren Trucking Co. v. Chandler, 221 Va. 1108 (1981) to clarify the meaning of those terms. In that case, the Virginia Supreme...

The two-causes rule was established by the Supreme Court of Virginia in Bergmann v. L & W Drywall, 222 Va. 30 (1981). The Court in Bergmann determined that when there are two causes of a claimant’s disability, one related to a work accident and one unrelated, benefits are awarded when the cause related to the work accident contributes to the disability. Recently, the application of the two-causes rule was put to the test in front of the Supreme Court of Virginia in the case of Carrington v. Aquatic Co., No. 180243, 2019 Va. LEXIS 80 (July 18, 2019). In this...

The public comment period for schedules will end on August 20, 2019

Ford Richardson Opens Hampton Roads, VA Office 500 E. Main St. 16th Floor Norfolk, VA 23606 Please Welcome the Ford Richardson VA Legal Team Mark B. Killduff, Partner Audrey Marcello, Partner Matthew Moynihan, Associate Attorney

Held – September 18, 2019 from 7:30am – 4pm Please join us for the Ford Richardson Annual Workers’ Compensation Seminar at the Westin Hotel, Richmond, VA. Please call 804-220-6117 for additional information. CEU credits have been applied for and are free to adjusters, nurse case managers and risk managers: CCM, CMS,CRC, FL Adjuster, GA Adjuster, National Nurse, NC Adjuster and VA Agent. We look forward to seeing you there.

In 2016, the Court of Appeals issued an Opinion in Van Buren v. Augusta County, 66 Va. App. 441 (2016), holding that a claimant proved a “sudden and identifiable” injury by accident despite the claimant being unable to identify when his injury occurred within a 30 to 45-minute period of varying exertions. The Court held that, under certain circumstances, that 30 to 45-minute time period could be considered sufficient to show that the injury occurred “at some reasonably definite time.” Subsequently, there have been several decisions that demonstrate the Court of Appeals’ efforts to evolve and define the sort of...

For years, workers’ compensation adjusters, nurse case managers, and other workers’ compensation professionals sounded the alarm about physicians using opioids as a cure-all for alleged chronic pain. Significant progress has been made with this issue. Large pharmaceutical companies like Purdue Pharma are currently being sued by at least 44 states related their role in fueling and sustaining the opioid crisis. Now, it is almost universally accepted within the workers’ compensation community that prescribing opioids for chronic pain is only recommended after careful consideration of the risks and benefits associated with long-term opioid use for each patient. Unfortunately, we are seeing...

In a published Opinion on May 14, 2019, Alexandria City Public Schools v. Kerri Handel Record No. 1582-18-4, the Court of Appeals held that a sudden mechanical or structural change in the body is only required to be shown in one part of the body to qualify as a compensable injury by accident. Stated differently, so long as one part of the body is shown to have suffered a mechanical or structural change, the Award may reach other parts of the body as well if they are causally related to the accident. The Court in Handel reviewed the familiar three-prong...

We all know the definition of a compensable injury is a “sudden and identifiable injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment.” Va. Code § 65.2-101 (emphasis added). However, it is easy to forget that our common understanding of the word “accident” can differ from the definition applied by the Commission in Workers’ Compensation matters. One such instance of this occurs when the injury in question is not “accidental,” but caused by an intentional act. It is well-established pursuant to the Act that an employee’s intentional self-inflicted injury is not compensable. Va. Code § 65.2-306(A)(1);...

Historically, the Commission has followed the precedent set in Morris v. Morris, which ruled “[i]n order to carry his burden of proving an ‘injury by accident,’ a claimant must prove that the cause of his injury was an identifiable incident or sudden precipitating event and that it resulted in an obvious sudden mechanical or structural change in the body.” Morris v. Morris, 238 Va. 578, 589, 385 S.E.2d 858, 865 (1989) (emphasis added). We began to see a shift in the Commission’s analysis of injury by accident claims in cases such as Van Buren v. Augusta County, 66 Va. App....