NWCDN Members regularly post articles and summary judgements in workers’ compensations law in your state.
Select a state from the dropdown menu below to scroll through the state specific archives for updates and opinions on various workers’ compensation laws in your state.
Contact information for NWCDN members is also located on the state specific links in the event you have additional questions or your company is seeking a workers’ compensation lawyer in your state.
The
South Dakota Department of Labor recently issued another decision accepting the
causation testimony of a Claimant’s treating provider over the testimony of an Employer’s
and Insurer’s experts. In Wager v. Buck’s Electric, Inc. (HF No. 96,
2023/24), Claimant, apprentice electrician Zachary Wager, developed a hernia
shortly after engaging in heavy lifting activities at work on June 15, 2021. Employer
and Insurer initially accepted the hernia as compensable and paid for
Claimant’s care related to the hernia. Claimant later developed nerve pain related
to his treatment for the hernia. Claimant underwent an IME, in which the IME
doctor opined that Claimant’s hernia had, in fact, been caused by a congenital
condition rather than the work injury.
However, Claimant later obtained an opinion from his treating provider
that the work injury was a major contributing cause of the hernia.
The
Department accepted the opinion of Claimant’s treating doctor over the opinion of
Employer’s and Insurer’s IME doctor and held Claimant had met his burden to
show that the work injury was a major contributing cause of his hernia and
nerve pain. This case again shows the Department siding with a treating
physician on causality over an IME doctor or other retained expert. In ruling
in Claimant’s favor, the Department emphasized that a work injury need only be
“a major contributing cause,” not the sole cause of a claimant’s current
condition. Therefore, evidence of the Claimant’s preexisting congenital issues
did not preclude a finding that the work injury was a major contributing cause
of the Claimant’s current condition.