Pa. Supreme Court Declares Impairment Rating Provisions of the Workers’ Comp Act Unconstitutional; Attorney Dan Siegel Authored Amicus Brief
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court today declared as unconstitutional the impairment rating evaluation (IRE) provision in Section 306(a.2) of the Workers’ Compensation Act. The decision in Protz v. WCAB (Derry Area School District) means that injured workers will no longer be subject to a cap on the length of wage loss benefits they received. Attorney Dan Siegel of the Law Offices of Daniel J. Siegel, LLC authored the friend of the court brief on behalf of the Pennsylvania Association for Justice (formerly the Pennsylvania Trial Lawyers Association).
In the 6-1 majority opinion authored by Justice Wecht, the Court concluded that the Pennsylvania legislature violated the state Constitution when it passed this provision because it (1) gave “unfettered discretion over Pennsylvania’s impairment-rating methodology” to the American Medical Association, and (2) “did not include in … any of the procedural mechanisms that this Court has considered essential to protect against ‘administrative arbitrariness and caprice.'”
Chief Justice Saylor authored a concurring opinion. Justice Baer filed a dissenting opinion. Pittsburgh attorney Tom Baumann represented claimant.
Click here to read the Protz opinion.
Click here to read Dan Siegel’s Amicus brief.
Before the decision, Section 306(a.2) of Act permitted employers to require an injured worker to undergo an IRE after receiving 104 weeks of disability benefits. If the IRE physician determined that the injured worker’s whole body impairment was less than 50 percent, as determined by the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, the worker was limited to 500 weeks of future wage losses. The Court held that the delegation of the impairment determination was impermissible because only the legislature can make those decisions.
“I am pleased that the Supreme Court has conclusively ruled on this issue,” said Dan Siegel, “because we have been raising the issue on behalf of our clients, and in cases in which other attorneys have retained us to do so. In addition, it was a pleasure to work with attorney Tom Baumann, who handled the underlying case and successfully argued the case before the Supreme Court.”
Attorney Dan Siegel provides trial and appellate court writing services to attorneys throughout Pennsylvania. Contact Dan at dan@danieljsiegel.com or (610) 446-3457.
