LOIS Associate Alexa Cintron and Paralegal Montserrat Ramirez-Figueroa successfully secured a finding of no labor market attachment in a New York Workers’ Compensation claim. The matter involves injuries to the cervical and the lumbar spine where the Claimant was found with temporary partial disability, and was directed to seek work within his medical restrictions. Although the Claimant submitted over 250 pages of job search of documentation, Attorney Cintron meticulously identified various applications for out-of-state positions, including jobs requiring commutes of 5.5 hours from New York, as well as other jobs in California, Nevada, and even Canada.
During trial, Attorney Cintron emphasized that the applications directly conflicted with Claimant’s testimony that he could only drive 1 to 2 hours before experiencing pain. On cross-examination, Claimant conceded that he lacked a Canadian work permit despite applying to positions there. Based on this evidence, the Law Judge held that the job search was not conducted in accordance with the American Axle standard and ruled that the Claimant is unattached to labor market. As a result of this favorable outcome, weekly indemnity benefits were suspended.
