News

Craddock Wins at North Carolina Court of Appeals

Angela Farag Craddock prevailed for the defendants in a workers’ compensation matter recently decided by the North Carolina Court of Appeals. In Barker v. Hatteras Island Cottage Repair (COA15-1205), the plaintiff appealed from an Industrial Commission Opinion and Award that denied plaintiff’s request for reinstatement of workers’ compensation disability payments that had been suspended for failure to cooperate with vocational rehabilitation efforts, and held that plaintiff had failed to establish that he was disabled. The N.C. Court of Appeals affirmed, holding competent evidence supported the Commission’s determination that the plaintiff had failed to cooperate with vocational rehabilitation efforts sufficient to warrant reinstatement of his suspended workers’ compensation benefits. The Court also affirmed that plaintiff’s failure to take advantage of available employment opportunities supported the Commission’s ultimate determination that the plaintiff failed to prove that his inability to find work earning the same wages he earned before his injury was because of his work-related injury, and therefore failed to prove he remained disabled within the meaning of the Workers’ Compensation Act. A copy of the Court’s decision may be read here.