Willig Williams and Davidson Weighs in on ‘Game-Changing’ Workers’ Comp Court Decision

Willig, Williams & Davidson, recently shared insight with The Legal Intelligencer regarding the implications of a June 6 ruling by the Commonwealth Court.

The 6-1 ruling in Whitfield v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board held that any workers’ compensation claimant who had their benefits modified from full to partial based on an unconstitutional impairment rating evaluation now has the right to seek reinstatement to full benefits.

The Whitfield decision follows the 2017 Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision in Protz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board, which invalidated a section of Pennsylvania’s Workers’ Compensation Act that had required doctors performing impairment rating evaluations of claimants to rely on guidelines from the American Medical Association. Consequently, such evaluations that had been performed pursuant to those guidelines were unconstitutional. That left open a question of how to handle claimants whose benefits had been reduced based on now-invalidated evaluations.

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