A question that many clients ask The Rotatori Law Firm in a Connecticut workers' compensation case is whether after receiving specific indemnity benefits by way of an approved voluntary specific agreement, can they be entitled to subsequent temporary total disability benefits?The answer is yes. Indemnity benefits are not subject to a strict progression of either temporary total disability benefits, temporary partial benefits and specific benefits. In Marandino v Prometheus Pharmacy, 294 Conn. 564 (2010), the Connecticut Supreme Court held that a claimant was not barred from receiving total disability benefits after the expiration of a permanent partial disability award. In Marandino, the court rejected the argument that the claimant had to show a change in condition in order to receive temporary total disability benefits following the payment of a specific award.
In Marandino, the temporary total disability issue resulted from the development of a pain syndrome subsequent to a compensable arm injury.
Our experience has been that in many cases were a specific body part is injured, a client can develop regional pain syndrome and/ or reflex sympathetic dystrophy secondary to the injured body part. RSD after trauma can frequently manifest itself in a client's extremities including, but not limited to, their arms, legs and feet. Hence, the Marandino case is an important case to be used as legal precedent where the claimant becomes incapacitated from a pain syndrome after being paid his specific indemnity benefit.
Please feel free to contact our Southbury, Connecticut office at (203) 626-1446 if you feel you have become incapacitated from a work related accident and suffer regional body pain syndrome secondary to your work related accident.