Today’s workers’ compensation opinion by the NC Court of Appeals

Leggett v. AAA Cooper Transportation, Inc.: A workers’ compensation case can involve a separate personal injury case against a third party (not the employer) if the third party was responsible for the employee’s injury. When these personal injury cases are resolved, the provider of the workers’ compensation benefits may have a lien on part of the recovery. The amount of this lien can be set by the trial court in a procedure spelled out in N.C. Gen. Stat. 97-10.2(j). Under the statute, the trial court has broad discretion and may go so far as to eliminate the lien completely.