Law Office of Alan Tysinger

COVID-19 and Causation in a Pandemic

In the COVID-19 occupational disease cases, everyone wants to go straight to individual causation. In other words, how can I prove that this employee can only have gotten this disease at work. That is not how these cases are going to go. There will be many widely scattered cases where... Read more →

Aggravation Injury Denied in Court Case

In the Worker’s Compensation arena, what many injured employees fail to understand is that the concept of aggravation is a critical factor in determining what injuries are work related and which are not. The insurance carriers will often deny injuries as pre-existing, when in fact the employee had no previous... Read more →

San Antonio Firefighters Fight for Health Protections and Better Workers' Compensation Treatment

Recently the City of San Antonio and the San Antonio Firefighters union litigated the next collective bargaining agreement through a series of arbitration hearings. Among the topics involved was the potential for changes in the way the City administers workers' compensation claims. As SAFD healthcare costs have risen, workers' compensation... Read more →

Legal Issues in Mental Health Claims Continued (Part VIII): Scope of Practice

SCOPE OF PRACTICE ISSUES IN DIAGNOSIS AND EVALUATION The Appeals Panel has held that a chiropractor may assign impairment for a mental trauma injury such as post-traumatic stress disorder.[46]Recent changes to the Labor Code affecting assignment of designated doctors warrant a visit to this area of the law to lay... Read more →

Legal Issues in Mental Health Claims Continued (Part V): Scientific Validity

III. DSM-V AND SCIENTIFIC VALIDITY ISSUES The DSM-V is now being introduced to the psychiatric community, to mixed reviews. There are controversies that involve several aspects of the changes involved to this “bible” of mental illness. Dr. Joel Paris, MD summarizes some of the controversial points: Is the DSM-V system... Read more →

Legal Issues in Mental Health Claims Continued (Part IV): Repetitive Mental Trauma

(4) Repetitive Mental Trauma As discussed above, repetitive mental trauma injuries are not covered as compensable under the Workers' Compensation Act. However, this does create an apparent loophole in the system, in which actions that are arising out of the employment resulting in injury to an employee are tortious, but... Read more →

Legal Issues in Mental Health Claims Continued (Part III): Mental Trauma: TBI and Direct and Natural Result, or “Follow On” Injuri

(2) Traumatic Brain Injuries Traumatic brain injuries give rise to psychiatric diagnoses, but because of their origin in organic brain injuries they are not included in typical discussions of mental trauma, which are based not on the field of medical specialty involved, such as psychiatric care, but rather on whether... Read more →

Legal Issues in Mental Health Claims Continued (Part II): PTSD

(B) Mental Trauma Injuries (1) Post Traumatic Stress Post traumatic stress disorder is the classic mental trauma injury, by definition arising out of a single event and typically connected with a shocking event or circumstance that causes those involved in the claims process to recoil. But at the margins, PTSD... Read more →

LEGAL ISSUES IN MENTAL HEALTH CLAIMS Part 1: History of Legal Analysis and Compensability

In discussing the subject of mental illness as it relates to workers' compensation, I find the following thought experiment to be very fruitful. Imagine that you are assigned the following task. Though you have no debilitating physical injury or illness, you must do the following: 1) Leave your job, live... Read more →

First Responder Cancer Claims: Basics of Presumption

Proving a medical diagnosis in an occupational disease case is difficult in any case because of the many environmental, genetic, and other factors which may contribute to the development of a medical condition. The Texas legislature has aimed to streamline this process for first responders who are battling cancers that... Read more →