I recently lamented in these pages that punitive damages and other legal penalties far too often fail to deter the behavior they were intended to deter. I noted one reason for this is because fact finders rarely make use of the tools they have at their disposal to stop bad behavior and make an example out of defendants to send a message that courts will not stand for illegal tactics.

While defendants are still let off the hook by courts for dilatory—and worse—tactics far more often than they should be, two recent cases my firm was involved in suggest that some Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Judges (WCJs) are finally saying “enough is enough,” particularly with employers’ and insurers’ unreasonable contests of workers’ compensation claims.

Unreasonable Contest Attorney Fees Have Traditionally Been Few and Far Between

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