Jones Jones LLC congratulates Associate Diane C Mandleur for securing a unanimous 2024 New York State Workers’ Compensation Board Panel Decision. This decision resulted in more than $73,000 in awards for the carrier in reimbursement from the Aggregate Trust Fund (ATF) following a 2022 classification of permanent disability in New York.
This award comes following a decision that clarified a carrier’s entitlement to a statutory entitled credit, a credit provided by law for increases in employment, training, investments in property and more, under Section 15(3)(w) of the workers’ compensation law for cases with date of injury after 4/10/2017. Section 15(3)(w) addresses temporary disability benefits and labor market attachment. In this case, Jones Jones appeared at a hearing for the carrier to address an unrelated issue and Diane used the opportunity to address the credit over vigorous exception from the claimant’s attorney. The Law Judge noted the carrier’s application but denied the application for the credit.
Diane filed a request to reopen the case to address the statutory entitled credit issue. She argued carriers have an unwaivable statutory entitlement to the credit, and it can be raised at any time. In the case of Section 15(3)(w), carriers are entitled to a credit if the period of temporary partial disability is paid to a claimant after the exhaustion of 130 weeks from the date of injury, which would reduce the claimant’s entitlement under their classification award. Here, the Board agreed the credit is statutory and that the Section sets forth no provision for waiver of that right. The Board awarded the carrier a credit of 97.4 weeks calculated at present day value with interest for $73,815.70.
Diane took a persistent and vigorous approach in fighting for the client’s right to a credit in this case. The team leveraged their extensive knowledge of Section 15(3)(w) and successfully secured this decision. Tenacity and an up-to-date knowledge of recent Board decisions are key to securing wins. Congratulations Diane and the rest of the Jones Jones team. If you are in need of assistance with a workers’ compensation case, please contact our appellate team at clientservices@jonesjonesllc.com.
