NWCDN Members regularly post articles and summary judgements in workers’ compensations law in your state.
Select a state from the dropdown menu below to scroll through the state specific archives for updates and opinions on various workers’ compensation laws in your state.
Contact information for NWCDN members is also located on the state specific links in the event you have additional questions or your company is seeking a workers’ compensation lawyer in your state.
The Legislature made no statutory changes to the Workers’ Compensation Act in 2025. Georgia’s maximum TTD rate remains at $800.00 and maximum TPD rate at $533.00. Additionally, the Georgia Court of Appeals and Supreme Court continue the trend of accepting very few workers’ compensation appeals. Most recently, in McKay v. Inalfa Roof Systems, Inc., 374 Ga. App. 526 (2025), the Court of Appeals addressed the longstanding Rycroft defense. Under Rycroft, an employee’s misrepresentation as to a pre-existing condition will bar benefits if: (a) the employee knowingly and willfully made a false representation as to his/her physical condition; (b) the employer relied upon the false representation as a substantial factor in the hiring process; and (c) there is a causal connection between the false representation and the injury. In McKay, the employee failed to disclose his history of back surgery in a post-offer medical questionnaire. He injured his back at work and disclosed his history after this first accident. The employee continued to work after the disclosure and suffered a second accident involving his back months later. The Court of Appeals confirmed Rycroft applied to bar his first accident. However, the Court of Appeals found the Employer waived its right to assert Rycroft in retaining the claimant after his disclosure thus rendering the second accident compensable. McKay raises the bar for Employers and mandates action to preserve Rycroft once a disclosure is made.
The Georgia Legislative Session had no major changes to report for our system in this session. This should generally be received as great news, considering the trend in recent years to annual increases in our TTD and TPD caps.
Although not directly related to Workers’ Compensation HB 451 presents a non WC and private insurance solution to PTSD benefits for first responders, and EMT’s. This topic has been discussed for the last two sessions and originally was being proposed as an amendment to our WC code but sure and steady work by the Board has this issue positioned to fall into a non-WC coverage insurance program. To continue with a theme of advancing protections for first -responders, SB 371 would provide additional compensation out of the State Indemnification Fund for public safety/first responders as a gap between workers' compensation benefits and their current wage income.
Beyond both of those matters which were near misses from a WC perspective, it remains business as usual with no significant changes to report!