Louisiana: Surveillance Video Nixes Worker’s Benefits

A Louisiana appellate court affirmed a decision by a state workers’ compensation judge that a worker forfeited his right to workers’ compensation benefits because he deliberately made false statements in order to obtain workers’ compensation [La. Rev. Stat. 23:1208]. Following a work-related incident, the worker complained to a physician that he could not tolerate walking or standing due to his “ten out of ten” pain, yet surveillance video 11 days later showed him actively bending, standing, walking, and manipulating a deflated “fun jump.” A physician testified that the worker’s complaints and his activity level were entirely inconsistent. The appellate court indicated there was competent evidence in the record to support the judge’s findings.

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 Hypolite v. Louisiana Workers’ Comp. Corp., 16–387 (La. App. 3 Cir. 11/02/16), 2016 La. App. LEXIS 2031 (Nov. 2, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 39.03.

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