GQ Corner
Q. IW was doing his every day procedure of entering the work building and carrying his computer bag with laptop, documents and some bottles. Bag is in hand, not a shoulder bag and nothing in left hand. As IW was walking in hallway, he felt a sharp pain in mid/upper back of right side. No specific incident, no fall occurred, no twisting of body occurred, no looking over shoulder, not a busy area, nothing different from his everyday routine. IW stated pain increased as he continued walking in hallway to office and then he had difficulty walking with heavy breathing. Medical care pursued and diagnosis is sprain of ligaments of thoracic spine. Is this compensable or should I dispute?
A. If nothing about his physical movements truly caused the injury, then it is a positional risk case and the claim is not compensable and that is because the work did not cause the claimant’s injury; however, this is a very low bar for the claimant to get over to make a claim compensable. As it stands right now, based on your description, you have a reasonable basis to dispute the claim.
Q. When death benefits are initiated to a spouse and minor children, is it necessary to issue a PLN-5 to each beneficiary or is one PLN-5 to the spouse sufficient if it lists the amounts paid to the each party?
A. The examples that accompany the PLN-5 on the DWC’s website suggest that only one PLN needs to be filed. See the three examples I copied from the form below:
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- Death benefits are being paid due to the death of Joe Employee. Benefits are being paid as follows: Spouse 100% ($400 week).
- Death benefits are being paid due to the death of Joe Employee. Benefits are being paid as follows: Spouse 50% ($200 week), Son 25% ($100 week), Daughter 25% ($100 week).
- Death benefits are being paid due to the death of Joe Employee.
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Benefits are being paid as follows: Son 50% ($200 week), Daughter 50% ($200 week). Obviously, if the beneficiaries do not live together you would need multiple mailings.
FOLIO
