New Case Law: Morton's & Gooden

New Case Law: Mortons & Gooden

August 1, 2006

Two new decisions were recently released by the Illinois Appellate Court, Workers' Compensation Commission Division. The first was an appeal of a case decided by our own Valerie Peiler during her tenure as an arbitrator: Mortons of Chicago v. Industrial Comm'n (Jane Rooch), No. 1-05-2461WC (1st District, July 12, 2006).

Facts: This is one of those cases that started out well, but definitely did not improve with continued appeal. The petitioner was a restaurant server who injured her knee on the job. After arthroscopic surgery, her physician determined that she could not return to waiting tables. Her earnings (apparently true) the year before the accident (1998) were $44,400.

According to the Court opinion, there were two other servers who had the same level of experience and seniority as the petitioner. They earned $44,300 and $43,700 in 1998. The petitioner had previously earned a bachelors degree in paralegal studies, but had never worked as a paralegal because she made more waiting tables. In 2000, she secured a paralegal job at $34,000. In 2000, the two co-workers at Mortons were earning $50,000 and $54,500.

Impact of New Legislation

January 13, 2006

By Francis M. Brady

The Governor has now appointed members of the Medical Fee Advisory Board. There are three representatives from the employee class; three from the employer; and three from the medical provider class. The Board is responsible for making rules implementing the Fee Schedule now being constructed.

The Board met in public in the Oral Argument room at the Illinois Workers' Compensation Commission in Chicago on January 13, 2006. Valuable presentations were made by Chairman Dennis Ruth followed by Glen Boyle and Brent Veninga. Mr. Boyle is project manager and is charged with developing, and making usable, the fee schedule contemplated by Section 8.2 of the recent workers' compensation legislation.

Mr. Veninga is a representative of Ingenix. He, too, made an instructive presentation consisting of his comments and PowerPoint slides. From its own base, augmented with information from the Illinois Department of Public Health, Ingenix is compiling the huge amount of data required to build the fee schedule.