Occasionally, a workers’ compensation claimant may win a case, but still feel aggrieved due to the workers’ compensation judge’s unwillingness to award unreasonable contest attorney fees. When a defendant becomes overly aggressive and engages in litigation without basis or simply to harass the claimant, an injured worker becomes needlessly forced to be involved in litigation. The Workers’ Compensation Act is remedial in nature and was designed to prevent such situations. Consequently, the law provides that awarding counsel fees to be paid by the employer and not the claimant is the rule and excluding fees is the exception to be applied only where the factual record establishes a reasonable contest, as in Millvale Sportmen’s Club v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board, 393 A.2d 49 (Pa. Commw.1978). This determination as to whether a reasonable basis exists for an employer’s contest of liability is also fully reviewable by the appellate courts.
The Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act provides in pertinent part: “In any contested case where the insurer has contested liability in whole or in part … the employee … in whose favor the matter at issue has been finally determined in whole or in part shall be awarded … a reasonable sum for costs incurred for attorney fees,” Pa. Stat. Ann. tit. 77, Section 996(a).
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