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In a recent deccision, the Court of Appeals reversed an order awarding benefits to an employee by a Superior Court, which had reversed a decision of the State Board of Workers Compensation denying benefits to the employee for an injury he received. The employee injured his knee while at work on two occasions. On each occasion, he got minimal medical treatment and returned to work. On the last occassion, he reinjured the same knee while riding a four-wheeler on his personal time. He claimed that the last injury was the result of wear and tear from hs job duties and further argued that one part of his injury was essentilally from one of the previous work injuries. The employer argued that the last injury was the reason he needed medical treatment, and was clearly not related to his work. Apparently, there was at least some medical eveidence to support the arguments for each side. Ultimately, the employer won the case and benefits were denied. There were a number of interesting legal issues in this case, but the moral of the story that lay persons can take from this opninon is that even if you have medical evidence to support your argument as to why you should receive benefits, the Judge can put as much or as little weight on your evidence as he/she chooses, and rule based on whichever side's evidence seems the most compelling. The judgement willl not be reversed on appeal, because the appellate judges cannot substitute their judgement for the Board's and determine that the other side's medical evidence makes a more compelling argument. If there is some evidence to support the judge's findings, the award will be affirmed. If you have questions about your workers comp claim, please contact me. Thanks, and have a great day. BGS
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