NEW! Insurance Co. of the State of Pennsylvania v. Hughes, 10-12-00414-CV, (04/16/2015): A Texas appellate court rejected an insurance carrier's challenge to a jury's finding that a worker had given her employer timely notice of her occupational disease and that she was entitled to benefits.

NEW! Rodas v. La Madeleine of Texas, 05-14-00054-CV, (04/10/2015): An injured worker who submitted her personal injury claims against her nonsubscriber employer to arbitration should have been allowed to conduct discovery into the potential partiality of the arbitrator once she learned the arbitrator had failed to disclose his involvement with concurrent mediations involving her employer's attorneys.

NEW! Hassan v. Rock, 03-13-00536-CV, (04/10/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that a day laborer's recovery on his negligence claim against the person who had hired him to help clear brush was properly reduced to account for his proportionate responsibility for his injuries.

NEW! University of Texas System v. Thomas, 01-14-00244-CV, (03/26/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that an employer's failure to comply with the procedural rules for securing judicial review of an unfavorable decision by the Division of Workers' Compensation rendered the trial court's decision void, and thereby divested the appellate court of jurisdiction.

NEW! Bubnis v. Leander Independent School District, 03-13-00196-CV, (03/25/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that a school district worker had no impairment from her exposure to chemical fumes in a science classroom, and that her later diagnoses of anxiety and depression were not compensable components of her injury.

NEW! McWatt v. Mattax, 03-13-00332-CV, (03/18/2015): A Texas appellate court upheld an administrative order sanctioning a doctor $15,000 and compelling him to attend a training session on the duties of physicians participating in the workers' comp system after an audit established that he had repeatedly failed to comply with the reporting and recordkeeping rules for "designated doctors."

Saiz v. Susser Holdings Corp., 04-14-00487-CV, (03/11/2015): A Texas appellate court upheld an arbitrator's decision that a worker's claims against her nonsubscribing employer were time-barred because she had failed to demand arbitration of them before the expiration of the statute of limitations for them.

Tijerina v. Texas Property Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association, 03-13-00300-CV, (02/26/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that a worker could not get the back surgery he wanted by filing a lawsuit to purportedly "enforce" an award of lifetime medical care he received in 1989.

Gallardo v. Insurance Co. of the State of Pennsylvania, 13-14-00132-CV, (02/19/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that a trial judge can order a worker to comply with the terms of a settlement agreement requiring her to submit paperwork to the Division of Workers’ Compensation pertaining to her entitlement to benefits, even though the judge could not adjudicate her entitlement to those benefits.

Duncan v. First Texas Homes, 02-12-00464-CV, (02/12/2015): A Texas appellate court overturned a grant of summary judgment in favor of a nonsubscribing employer on the issue of liability for a worker's fall while descending a staircase at a construction site.

Rincones v. WHM Custom Services et al., 13-11-00075-CV, (02/12/2015): Workers' compensation exclusive remedy did not protect a business from a negligence claim filed by a worker who alleged that he was fired after a mandatory drug test falsely indicated that he had used marijuana, the Texas 13th District Court of Appeals ruled.

Forsthoff v. Brazos County, 10-14-00297-CV, (02/05/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that a self-represented corrections officer waived any argument she might have been able to raise regarding a grant of summary judgment in favor of her former employer regarding the extent of her compensable back injury because of her inadequate briefing.

Tesco Corp. v. Steadfast Insurance Co., 01-13-00091-CV, (02/03/2015): A Texas appellate court vacated its prior decision reversing a grant of summary judgment in an insurance coverage dispute over who had to pay punitive damages to a worker injured in a drilling accident since the underlying award of punitive damages had been reversed.

Taylor v. The Hartford Insurance Co. of the Midwest, 14-13-00731-CV, (01/27/2015): A Texas appellate court upheld summary judgment against an injured worker on her challenge to the denial of benefits for an alleged head and spine injury from an industrial accident, as well as a challenge to her impairment rating from the conditions which the state Workers’ Compensation Commission had found to be compensable.

West Star Transportation v. Robison, 07-13-00109-CV, (01/23/2015): The 7th Court of Appeals in Amarillo upheld a $5.5 million jury verdict in favor of a trucker who suffered severe head injuries in a fall at the company's yard in Lubbock, rejecting the employer's argument that it had no duty to warn, train or supervise the trucker because he was an experienced flatbed truck driver with more than 30 years of experience.

McKelvy v. Columbia Medical Center of McKinney Subsidiary, 05-13-00990-CV, (01/14/2015): A Texas appellate court ruled that a hospital employee could pursue a tort claim against her non-subscribing employer for a workplace fall, and that her claim was for ordinary negligence, outside the ambit of the state Medical Liability Act.