Maryland Workers Comp Opinion
The Maryland Court of Appeals ruled last week in a Maryland workers’ comp appeal that testimony from a vocational expert is not required in an appeal of Workers Compensation Committee award for industrial loss.
In this case, the Claimant, a fleet service clerk for American Airlines, sustained a permanent partial disability of 50% under “Other Cases” industrial loss from a back injury and related psychiatric injury and as the result an accident unloading baggage at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. The employer appealed the decision to Anne Arundel County Circuit Court. An Anne Arundel jury reduced the award to 35%.
On appeal, Claimant argued that American Airlines was required to provide testimony from a vocational expert in addition to the testimony of a psychiatrist and orthopedic surgeon. Judge Lynne A. Battaglia, writing for a unanimous Maryland Court of Appeals decision, found that Maryland law, like most other states, is that expert vocational testimony is not required to determine industrial loss.
You can find the full opinion in Maldonado v. American Airlines here.
