Congratulations to Jones Jones LLC Partner Katherine Caracappa for securing a disallowance before the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Caracappa and her team found the claimant lacked credibility due to a number of inconsistencies between their testimony and C-3 form, or employee claim form.
In this case the claimant stated they were conducting work to build a deck for their employer when a heavy object fell and injured them. On their C-3 the claimant stated they gave notice to an alleged witness on the date of the incident and noted they were not sure if anyone witnessed the accident. During testimony, the claimant stated they had not spoken to the alleged witness, and thought the witness would have heard about the incident through word of mouth or by reviewing camera footage. The claimant also stated in their testimony that the accident happened in front of a lot of people, but no one helped them up. The witness testified they had not spoken to the claimant about the incident and heard about it from another worker a month after the claimant stopped working.
During cross-examination, Caracappa and her team pushed the claimant on their inconsistencies between the C-3 and their testimony. The claimant could not explain these inconsistencies and their testimony fell apart. Additionally, the claimant failed to list any witnesses to the accident on their C-3 but named multiple people during their testimony, creating more inconsistencies. Caracappa and her team made Summations on behalf of the client due to the number of inconsistencies and inappropriate nature of the claimant naming witnesses in their testimony that were not listed in their C-3. The Law Judge agreed to the Summations and based on the claimant’s ultimate statement that they did not report the incident to their superior, the Law Judge found the claimant was not credible and disallowed the claim.
Caracappa and her team showcased exhaustive research skills in finding the many inconsistencies between testimonies and C-3. The team also exemplified strong cross-examination skills. Congratulations to Caracappa and her team on this positive outcome. If you are in need of assistance with a workers’ compensation case, please contact our team at clientservices@jonesjonesllc.com.
