Posts Categorized: Workers’ Compensation

Lindsey Sands Confirmed as Adminstrative Law Judge

We are pleased and proud to announce that our colleague and friend, Attorney Lindsey Sands, was unanimously appointed to serve as an Administrative Law Judge by the Workers’ Compensation Board for the State of Maine. Lindsey spent her entire private practice career here at Norman, Hanson & DeTroy, and leaves a lasting legacy of hard… Read more »

WC Appellate Division Decision issued on June 7, 2019 – Termination Due to Cause from Post-Injury Employment

Termination Due to Cause from Post-Injury Employment A recently issued Appellate Division case provides some clarity to the murky question as to what effect, if any, does termination due to cause have on the analysis of an injured worker’s post-injury earning capacity. In O’Leary v. Northern Maine Medical Center, the employee sustained a 2011 back… Read more »

WC Appellate Division Decision issued on May 14, 2019 – Social Security Retirement Benefits and 14-Day Violation

Social Security Retirement Benefits and 14-Day Violation The Appellate Division recently issued a notable decision in a case titled Butler v. City of Portland.  This decision addresses two issues:  (1) the applicability of the Social Security retirement benefit authorized under the coordination of benefits provision in §221; and (2) whether a 14 day violation exists… Read more »

Medicare Set-Asides: Are You Paying Too Much?

By:  Stephen Hessert Background Medicare came into being in 1935 as part of the original Social Security Act enacted by Congress.  It was described as “a federally funded health insurance program for the elderly and the disabled.”  Over the years, its cost became problematic and in the late 1970s, a General Accounting Office study suggested… Read more »

WC Appellate Division Decision issued on June 14, 2018 – Average Weekly Wage

Average Weekly Wage The employee was employed by the same employer for 52 weeks prior to a December 17, 2014 injury, but for approximately 13 of those weeks she was out of work for non-occupational reasons and received STD benefits which were substantially lower than her customary weekly earnings.  The ALJ determined the average weekly… Read more »

WC Law Court Recognizes Credit for Social Security Retirement Benefits Paid in the Past

It has been recognized in several Law Court decisions that, generally speaking, there is no right to recover an overpayment of workers’ compensation benefits by taking an offset or by claiming reimbursement.  However, in a significant new decision, the Court has held that an employer is entitled to a credit for the value of Social… Read more »