Wyoming Supreme Court Rules That Medical Expert Need Not Use Magical Words

A medical expert need not use specific statutory language in order to establish causal relationship between an accident and a medical condition. The Wyoming Supreme Court reserved a lower panel's decision and found compensable a work related accident.

"As we have stated in the context of a claim for workers‟ compensation benefits for an aggravation of a pre-existing injury, the medical expert is not required to utter any particular magic words to establish the requisite causation. See State ex rel. Wyoming Workers’ Safety and Compensation Division v. Slaymaker, 2007 WY 65, ¶ 18, 156 P.3d 977, 984 (Wyo. 2007); In re Boyce, 2005 WY 9, ¶ 11, 105 P.3d 451, 455 (Wyo. 2005). So long as the medical expert‟s testimony contains sufficient information, the fact that she did not use the exact statutory language is irrelevant."

In the matter of the Workers' Compensation Claim of Peter Gaze v State of Wyoming, et al. (Decided August 19 2009)

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