In everyone’s favorite weekend afternoon movie on TNT, “The Shawshank Redemption,” Morgan Freeman’s character, Red, describes Tim Robbins’ character Andy’s love of geology: “Geology is the study of pressure and time. That’s all it takes really. Pressure and time.”
This summer, pressure and time paid off for the workers’ compensation claimant’s bar, twice on the same day: June 20. One of the victories is surely known to all workers’ compensation practitioners across the commonwealth by now: in Protz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Derry Area School District), 6 & 7 WAP 2016 (Pa. June 20), the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania handed down a complete rejection of the current statutory provisions governing impairment rating evaluations, which were found to be unconstitutional. The second victory is surely much less familiar: proposed House Bill 18 was defeated in Harrisburg. It would have severely limited injured workers’ access to medical providers and care in a manner that would never be tolerated were it applied to the general public. This article will consider these two developments in tandem as examples of what can be accomplished when pressure and time are brought to bear on injustices.
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