New York: Worker Has No Continued Attachment to Labor Market Where Job Search was Inadequate

Noting that labor market attachment is a factual issue for the New York Board to resolve, a state appellate court affirmed a decision that denied additional benefits to a claimant on the basis that she had failed to demonstrate continued attachment to the labor market. While the claimant applied for services with the Office of Adult Career and Continuing Education Services-Vocational Rehabilitation (hereinafter ACCES-VR) in October 2013—her DOI was in June 2011— that office provided no assistance with a job search since the claimant indicated she was contemplating surgery. She had, however, never sought authorization for surgery and there was no indication that surgery had been suggested by any physician. While the claimant indicated she had performed an independent search for employment and had applied for several positions, she had no documentary evidence to that effect. It was with the discretion of the Board to discount her testimony and make its own credibility determination.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Matter of Palmer v Champlain Valley Specialty, 2017 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2840 (Apr. 13, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 84.04.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law