Ewing v. State of Delaware

The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in its prosecution of a claim on behalf of one of its clients.  Our client worked for the Colonial School District as a special education teacher and was injured on the job.  Our client had undergone two operations due to her work accident which culminated with a triple level fusion from her C4-C5 through C5-C6 cervical spine.  The Employer in this case raised, as a defense, that our client voluntarily withdrew from the labor market.  This is a somewhat novel defense of recent origin and the Board did not find that argument at all persuasive.  Our client was able to produce documentation which included a handwritten job log, copies of recommendation letters, copies of cover letters for teaching jobs, and a copy of a job application for a teaching job at a private school.  Our client was also able to provide documentation that she took training courses in the summer of 2014 to improve her employability as a teacher and to help her maintain her teaching certification.  In the end, the Industrial Accident Board found that our client was credible; her treating orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Zaslavsky, was more credible than that of the defense medical examiner.  Accordingly, the Industrial Accident Board found that our client did not voluntarily withdraw from the labor market; that she had, in fact, sustained a recurrence of her total disability status as of February of 2015; and that our client remained on total disability status through the present time.  The Industrial Accident Board also ordered the Employer to pay an attorney’s fee and to reimburse our client’s medical expert witness fee.  (Ewing v. State of Delaware,Hearing No.: 1392405)