WC Appellate Division Decision issued on November 13, 2017 – Scope of Bailey Decision

In Bailey v. City of Lewiston, 2017 ME 160, 168 A.3d 762, the Law Court ruled that after a PI determination has been made by the Board, an employer cannot seek to lower the assessment in a subsequent proceeding based upon a change in medical condition.  However, in its opinion the Court in the broadest… Read more »

WC Appellate Division Decision issued on November 3, 2017 – Challenging PI Determination

Shortly after the Law Court’s landmark decision in Bailey v. City of Lewiston, 2017 ME 160 (July 20, 2017), the Appellate Division has had an opportunity to apply the holding of that decision in a claim involving an attempt to revise a prior PI determination.  The Bailey decision is extremely significant, as the Court held… Read more »

WC Appellate Division Decision issued on October 30, 2017 – Work Search and Changed Circumstances

It has long been recognized that when the amount of entitlement to benefits for incapacity has been established by Board decree, that determination may later be revised based upon evidence of a change of economic circumstances.  A recent decision of the Appellate Division addressed the issue of whether work search evidence, without more, can be… Read more »

WC Appellate Division Decision issued on October 11, 2017 – Average Weekly Wage and Employment Status

Incapacity benefits are based upon the pre-injury average weekly wage, which in most cases is the average of the employee’s earnings received during the 52-week period preceding the injury. In the vast majority of cases earnings received during this period are simply averaged together and the resulting figure is deemed to reflect what the employee’s… Read more »

WC Appellate Division Decision issued on October 11, 2017 – Rejection of Offer of Reasonable Employment

Section 214(1)(A) provides employers with a strong mechanism for controlling costs in compensation claims.  Specifically, if an employer extends an offer of reasonable employment to an injured employee who is out of work due to an injury, and if the employee refuses that offer without good cause, the employee “is no longer entitled to any… Read more »

Norman Hanson & DeTroy Attorneys Receive Honors from Best Lawyers

Norman, Hanson & DeTroy is proud to announce that sixteen of its attorneys have been named to the 2018 edition of The Best Lawyers in America, the oldest and most respected peer review publication in the legal provision. First published in 1983, Best Lawyers is based on an exhaustive annual peer-review survey comprising of nearly… Read more »

Update on Federal Disability Discrimination Law

By Christopher C. Taintor, Esq.   Disability discrimination has been a fertile area of litigation for several years.  The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reports that in fiscal year 2016, it received more than 28,000 charges which included some allegation of discrimination on the basis of disability – roughly double the number reported in 2005. … Read more »

E-Discovery: Traps for the Unwary

By Jonathan W. Brogan, Esq.  We all live in an information exploded age.  E–mail, social media, computer files and records, satellite tracking systems, and video are a daily part of all of our lives.  Because they are a part of all of our lives, they have now become an integral part of the discovery process… Read more »

WC Law Court decision issued on July 20, 2017 – Res Judicata and Permanent Impairment

It has long been established that when an issue is litigated to a final conclusion before the Workers’ Compensation Board, the matter may not be re-litigated in a subsequent proceeding. This doctrine is known as res judicata, which literally means “thing adjudged”, and although the concept arose in courts of general jurisdiction it has been… Read more »

Ransomware: How to React When Prevention Fails

A variant of “Petya” is just the latest massive ransomware cyberattack currently crippling businesses and government offices across Europe and the United States. The particular focus on the Ukraine again points to Russia as the likely source, but the true identity of the actors is still unknown. The increased sophistication and frequency of these threats… Read more »