Martin Vardanyan of SRTK’s Woodland Hills office recently secured a significant win for a client. The case involved a 57 year old caregiver who sustained an admitted orthopedic injury. Upon retention of counsel, that workers’ compensation claim was amended to include additional orthopedic body parts as well as the psyche and internal [including the heart]. A cumulative trauma injury was also pled and disputed. The applicant was working light duty until she had a heart attack. The applicant was directed to a notorious pro-applicant treater who opined she was TTD. Martin was able to depose the PTP and got him to admit he did not have a complete record plus that the applicant could work light duty from an orthopedic perspective. Additionally, he was able to get the PQME in orthopedics to agree with the original treater that the applicant could work light duty from an orthopedic perspective. Finally, he was also able to get an internal PQME report not finding the heart to be work-related and a psychiatric PQME report finding the psychiatric condition is secondary to the heart.
Despite this discovery, applicant’s counsel disputed the employer’s accommodation of the work restrictions. After a two-day trial, Martin was able to convince the WCJ otherwise proving to the satisfaction of the court that the work restrictions were offered and accepted those same restrictions for the compensable industrial body parts. The WCJ ultimately found that the PTP reporting was not substantial and that the applicant was not entitled to TTD. The result was a savings of approximately $11,000 in retroactive TD, but just as important, he was able to knock out various body parts/conditions while casting doubt upon the treater reporting!
Great work, Martin!