Apportionment is allowed under the Workers’ Compensation Law Section 44 to ensure that compensation is proportionally awarded to the amount of causal contribution made by the employer. This is intended to prevent windfalls to employers and can be applied to both permanent partial disability awards (“PPD”) or loss of use (Scheduled Loss of Use awards). In general, and despite the clear statutory authority, it remains challenging to secure apportionment to non work-related disability except for scheduled loss of use.

For the defense, apportionment should be considered where it can result in a lower wage (and lower benefit rate), where a statute of limitation defense becomes available, and where this is sucessive or prior coverage to which liability can be ascribed.