An employee sustaining multiple injuries to one extremity may now be entitled to a loss-of-earning-capacity analysis. In the past, when an injured worker sustained an injury to multiple body parts (e.g., an elbow and wrist or a knee and an ankle) in the same work accident, workers’ compensation benefits were paid as a scheduled member injury to the extremity (e.g., an arm or a leg) based upon the functional loss (i.e., the impairment rating) of...

On April 1, 2022, the Iowa Supreme Court issued opinions in Deng v. Farmland Food, Inc. and Chavez v. MS Tech., LLC; shedding some light on a longstanding dispute among Iowa Workers’ Compensation practitioners on what constitutes a “shoulder” under Iowa law. Practitioners dispute, for example, whether the clavicle is part of the shoulder, is a rotator cuff tear a shoulder injury, is a SLAP tear a shoulder injury and is the biceps tendon part...

Charles F. Gotch has been awarded the Foundation Award by the Nebraska State Bar Association. The Foundation Award is the most prestigious award given by the Nebraska State Bar Foundation. This award honors exemplary service to the Foundation and is presented to lawyers who have made, and who continue to make, a strong commitment to the goals of the Foundation. The mission of the Nebraska State Bar Foundation is to serve the citizens and legal...