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Workers’ Compensation Loses Out and Case Settlement Value Goes Down: State Agencies No Longer Have to Account for or Repay Workers’ Compensation Liens.
October 19, 2012
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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court has just issued a landmark ruling that will have far reaching effects on Pennsylvania litigation. In <em><a href="http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=In%20PACO%2020120928859.xml&docbase=CSLWAR3-2007-CURR">Frazier v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board</a>,</em> the Supreme Court ruled that, by virtue of sovereign immunity, a workers’ compensation lien cannot be recovered against a state agency, such as SEPTA, after trial or settlement. As a practical matter, this decision means that if a plaintiff wins a judgment or settles with a governmental agency, he is not obligated to pay back (from those proceeds) any owed workers’ compensation liens because the lien cannot be charged to or recovered from a governmental agency. The net effect of this is that: (a) some workers’ compensation liens will be unrecoverable (if the sole defendants are governmental agencies); (b) trial and settlement values will go down (because the lien does not to be repaid and cannot be boarded); and (c) plaintiffs might refocus their attacks in multiple defendant cases on any entity that is not a governmental agency.
Special thanks to Remy Cahn for her contributions to this post. For more information, please contact Bob Cosgrove at <a href="mailto:rcosgrove@wcmlaw.com">rcosgrove@wcmlaw.com</a>.