“Compensable Consequences” Of An On The Job Accident Are Not Always Covered (part 1 of 2)

Airport on-the-job injuries, AND complications, can be covered by the Airlines Workers Compensation Insurance, but only up to a point, according to Dulles Virginia area comp lawyer Doug Landau

Pilots, Flight Attendants, Ground Crew and Airport Personnel who are injured on the job may have complications after the original injury.  If the original accidental injury are covered under an Award of the Virginia Workers Compensation Commission, then the complication may also be covered under what is known as the doctrine of “Compensable Consequences.”  In a prior post, Herndon airport injury lawyer Doug Landau wrote about a pilot’s case where a clot developed after knee surgery a year after a fall on the runway.

Lawyer Landau tried the case and won, for BOTH the original knee injury AND the clot that developed after the operation.  The Airline’s Workers Compensation Insurance Company was ordered to pay for BOTH the treatment and surgery to the knee, and also the treatment and medications required for the clot. The Airline and it Insurance Company Defense Lawyers appealed the case, but they still lost and were ordered to pay for the “compensable consequence” of the on-the-job airport injury, as reported previously.

However, if there is a complication caused by the complication it may not be covered any more.  The workers comp team at the Herndon law firm ABRAMS LANDAU, had won a case for a United Airlines employee who injured her right leg, then twisted her right ankle because of the weakened joint (a “compensable consequence”).  Then favoring her right side, her left knee gave out and Landau won the case after a Hearing, for this “compensable consequence of a compensable consequence.” However, the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled since that such conditions will no longer be covered under the Virginia Workers Compensation Act.  In tomorrow’s post experienced workplace injury lawyer Landau will explore this area of comp law.