Workers Compensation and Permanent Partial Total Award

If a workers compensation petitioner suffered injuries during the course of his employment he would, upon presentation of appropriate proofs, be entitled to a permanent partial total award. Then, if petitioner’s condition continued to deteriorate, he would have a right to file an Application for Modification and, in some cases, benefit from a totality award. In the past, carriers would always be entitled to a credit for prior monies paid, dollar for dollar, as it related to the ultimate totality recovery. Then, of late, the petitioner’s Bar began to successfully argue that a totality award was much different than benefits received via a permanent partial total award and, in many cases, that the carrier making payment pursuant to the permanent partial total award would not be entitled to a credit for the prior benefits paid. This has been a hotly contested issue for some time. Judge Calderone has now clarified the issue within his Directive dated 11/21/13 wherein he confirms that a carrier making payment in the past via a permanent partial total award does have the right to secure a dollar for dollar credit from an ultimate totality award.

Workers Compensation and Permanent Partial Total Reward.pdf