Wagner v. Workers' Compensation Division’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Prior to the Legislature’s amendments in 1995, the Workers’ Compensation Act distinguished between impairment, which is a medical question, and disability, which is a legal question. To determine impairment, a doctor would examine the claimant and render a scientific opinion regarding how much a claimant’s physical functions were impaired by a work-related injury. The Workers’ Compensation Commissioner would then determine disability by looking at the doctor’s opinion on impairment, and mix that opinion with the evidence of the claimant’s earning capacity, the effect of the impairment on the claimant’s efficiency at work, and the effect of the impairment on the claimant’s pursuit of normal everyday living. From a mix of these factors, the Commissioner would compute the claimant’s percentage of permanent partial disability. The Commissioner’s permanent partial disability award would, in theory, only partially take into account the doctor’s determination of impairment. In 1995 the Legislature amended W. Va.Code, 23-4-6(i) to state that “the degree of permanent disability other than permanent total disability shall be determined exclusively by the degree of whole body medical impairment that a claimant has suffered.” This amendment altered the Workers’ Compensation Act in two ways significant to this case. First, after 1995 doctors are to make impairment evaluations using a standardized, “whole body” impairment rating system — in other words, they are to use the American Medical”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 212 W. Va. 86 - Repass v. Workers' Compensation Division

2. “See 85 CSR 16-3.4 (defining “permanent impairment” and “impairment,” according to the Guides, and indicating that “[a] claimant’s degree of permanent whole body medical impairment is to be determined in keeping with the determination of whole person permanent impairment as set forth in the Guides.” Id., in relevant part.) The exclusive use of the Guides for evaluation of impairment and, therefore, permanent partial disability, is not recommended by its author: “The critical problem is that no formula is known by which knowledge about a medical condition can be combined 'with knowledge about other factors to calculate the percentage by which the employee’s industrial use of the body is impaired. Accordingly, each commissioner or hearing official must come to a conclusion on the basis of assessment of the available medical and nonmedical information. The Guides may help resolve such a situation, but it cannot provide complete and definitive answers. Each administrative or legal system that uses permanent impairment as a basis for disability ratings should define its own means for translating knowledge about an impairment into an estimate of the degree to which the impairment limits the individual’s capacity to meet personal, social, occupational, and other demands or to meet statutory requirements. It must be emphasized and clearly understood that impairment percentages derived according to Guides criteria should not be used to make direct financial awards or direct estimates o”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the concurrence
   e.g. 212 W. Va. 86 - Repass v. Workers' Compensation Division

3. “4.1. Except as provided for in section 6 of this rule, on and after the effective date of this rule all evaluations, examinations, reports, and opinions with regard to the degree of permanent whole body medical impairment which a claimant has suffered shall he conducted and composed in accordance with the “Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment,” (4th ed.1993), as published by the American Medical Association. If in any particular claim, the examiner is of the opinion that the Guides or the section 6 substitutes cannot be appropriately applied or that an impairment guide established by a recognized medical speciality group may be more appropriately applied, then the examiner’s report must document and explain the basis for that opinion. Deviations from the requirements of the Guides or the section 6 substitutes shall not be the basis for excluding evidence from consideration. Rather, in any such instance such deviations shall be considered in determining the weight that will be given to that evidence. An example of an acceptable recognized medical speciality group’s own guides is the “Orthopaedic Surgeons Manual in Evaluating Permanent Physical Impairment.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 212 W. Va. 86 - Repass v. Workers' Compensation Division