Class v. Concept Open Imaging / Broadspire

JCC Stephenson (West Palm Beach) (Derrick Cox) (3-16-22)– Denied PTD –  The 45-year-old claimant had 1 ½ years of college and is tri-lingual.  Following her accident, in which she injured her low back, hip and knee, she returned, working the same job and hours until the employer’s facility closed.   She testified she submitted over 40 job applications.  The claimant’s voc expert (Adato), testified that relying upon authorized Dr. Eskenazi and E/C IME Laux’s opinions, the claimant could return to sedentary work, but relying on Drs. Krost and Richman, due to pain complaints, the claimant was not employable within a 50-mile radius.  The E/C’s  voc expert (Filpes) performed a transferable skills analysis and found over 7,000 jobs considered sedentary and light duty within a 50-mile radius. The JCC rejected Dr. Richman’s testimony as his opinions relied, in part, on his records, which were each almost identical to each other.  Further, he did not know the side effects of medications he was prescribing.  The JCC accepted the opinions of Eskenazi over those of Dr. Richman and accepted Laux’s opinions over the claimant’s IME (Krost) as being more well-reasoned and detailed.  The claimant did not even look for work until after her voc evaluation with Filpes,  and the JCC found she did not conduct a good faith exhaustive,  unsuccessful job search.   In addition,  based on the totality of the evidence, the JCC determined that the claimant did not establish that her permanent restrictions precluded her from engaging in at least full-time sedentary employment.  Click here to view Order