$205,000 settlement for knee injury
An union employee residing in FL, working as a job steward for a pipeline company, sustained a work injury in PA described as a right knee contusion in March 2014 which the insurance carrier, York Risk Services Group, accepted via a Notice of Temporary Compensation after we had filed a Claim Petition for the injured worker who had also sustained two chipped bones in his right hip and a torn meniscus in his right knee. The parties entered into a Stipulation in which the insurance carrier agreed that the injured workers’ description of injury should include right complex medial meniscal tear, tibial tubercle painful non-union requiring surgery. We later filed a Penalty Petition because the insurance carrier failed to reimburse the injured worker for out-of-pocket medical expenses he incurred due to his work injury. Another Penalty Petition was then filed because the insurance carrier illegally stopped paying the injured workers his wage loss benefits. The insurance carrier reinstated weekly compensation payments. He attended an independent medical examination and the IME physician reported that the injured worker was not 100% fully recovered from his work injury and that he had reached maximum medical improvement. The case ultimately settled for $205,000 via a compromise and release. The settlement check was delivered late and we have a penalty petition seeking penalties a penalty of 50% of the settlement check.
