The Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry sponsored its 2nd Annual Workers’ Compensation Policy Summit June 14 through 16, 2010, at Grand View Lodge in Nisswa, Minn. The program featured various speakers and multiple breakout sessions concerning issues surrounding the Minnesota’s workers’ compensation system. The conference program can be found here.
Keynote speakers at the program included:
- Kevin Warren, Vice President of Legal Affairs and Chief Administrative Officer Minnesota Vikings, Eden Prairie, Minn;
- Jeffrey Jacobs, Mayor St. Louis Park, Minn;
- Doug Huseby, Chief Executive Officer Becker Furniture World, Becker Minn; and
- Matthew Monsein, M.D., Medical Director Courage Center’s Chronic Pain Rehabilitation Program, Golden Valley, Minn.
One of the many ways the employer and insurer may try to deny you claim is on the basis that you are “faking” your symptoms. In order to determine if you are faking, they will typically have you undergo an Adverse Medical Examination to assess your symptoms. Mike Bryant posted about “Waddel signs” which is a series of tests that the adverse examiner may use to determine if you are faking.
As Mr. Bryant noted in his blog, if an adverse examiner believes you have certain “Waddel signs” there are ways in which an experienced attorney can attack those findings.
If you find yourself in a situation where you are without council and the adverse examiner is against you, it may be in your best interests to retain an experienced and knowledgeable attorney to help you.
In 1983, the Minnesota Legislature created the legal fiction known as maximum medical improvement (“MMI”). This concept applies to injuries that occurred on or after January 1, 1984.
The Legislature created MMI to serve two essential functions. These are discussed below. MMI is defined as “the date after which no further significant recovery from or significant lasting improvement to a personal injury can reasonably be anticipated, based upon reasonable medical probability, irrespective and regardless of subjective complaints of pain.” Minn. Stat. §176.011(25) (2010). Stated otherwise, MMI essentially means an injured worker is as good as they are going to get. An analogous concept is that of a healing plateau.
