LOIS Associate Emma A. Halpin and Paralegal Anna Fatovic obtained a disallowance in a New York Workers’ Compensation claim. The claim involves a claimant, who conceded he did not report the accident to his supervisor until a year after. He thereafter testified that he notified a dispatcher via Microsoft Teams; however, this was unsupported by the record. Employer testimony established that Teams messages were automatically purged after three months and cannot be retrieved. Attorney Halpin argued that the Carrier was prejudiced by the claimant’s failure to timely report the injury, as the employer had no reason to preserve or search for the alleged Teams communication within the purge window.
Attorney Halpin further argued that the record did not show any competent medical evidence that supported a causally related injury. Claimant did not begin treatment until a year after the alleged accident, and the treating provider failed to appear for depositions despite timely subpoena issued, leaving the record without medical testimony on causation. Based on the late notice and the lack of contemporaneous or credible medical evidence, the Law Judge found Carrier’s position persuasive and disallowed the claim.
