Goldberg Segalla partner Jaime L. Piazza won a full disallowance of a contested claim against a senior living employer before the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board.

The claimant had rheumatoid arthritis and alleged the MMR vaccine her new employer required made her condition worse. She also argued that because the employer refused her medical exemption request, it took on the risk.

Jaime, a Garden City-based partner in the firm’s Workers’ Compensation practice group, litigated the claim from its inception even though the independent medical examiner conceded causal relationship and she was able to prevail based upon three facts she brought out in testimony: First, the claimant’s medication timeline was inconsistent. Second, she stopped her immunosuppressant medications several times before the vaccine for unrelated reasons. And lastly, the claimant’s treating provider documented a similar flare-up months earlier.

Thus, Jaime showed the claimant had not met her burden of producing medical evidence that the vaccine caused her injury and the Workers’ Compensation Law Judge agreed and disallowed the claim. As a result, the client’s exposure was limited to defense costs rather than ongoing benefits.

Jaime’s excellent work underscores that an IME indicating causal relationship is not necessarily the end of the story; the claimant still has to meet their burden of medical proof.