No entitlement to percentage fee of medical bills when Workers’ Compensation Judge properly performs a quantum meruit analysis in connection with the attorney’s request for a fee.

The employer agreed to accept the claimant’s injury via a stipulation in which claimant’s counsel was entitled to 20% of the indemnity benefits received by the claimant as a fee. The parties continued to litigate the issue of whether counsel was entitled to 20% of any work-related medical bills, as well as the issues of penalties and unreasonable contest. A second stipulation was signed later, resolving the penalty and unreasonable contest issues. The only issue that went to decision was whether counsel was entitled to a 20% fee of the medical bill payments. The Commonwealth Court affirmed the Workers’ Compensation Judge and the Board. They reviewed the judge’s analysis of the issue and concluded that the judge performed a proper quantum meruit analysis. The court noted that the judge first assessed the agreement between the claimant and counsel, which failed to specify medical bill payments. The judge also reviewed the claimant’s testimony, which was silent as to the extent of the agreement between she and her attorney. Additionally, the court assessed the nature and difficulty of the work performed by counsel and agreed with the judge that the case did not appear to have been exceedingly difficult or time consuming in that major issues were resolved through two stipulations. Furthermore, there was no evidence in the record showing a dispute to claimant’s entitlement to medical benefits that required extensive legal work.

_{Case Law Alerts, 4^th Quarter, October 2016. Case Law Alerts is prepared by Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin to provide information on recent developments of interest to our readers. This publication is not intended to provide legal advice for a specific situation or to create an attorney-client relationship. Copyright © 2016 Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, all rights reserved. This article may not be reprinted without the express written permission of our firm.}