The Labor Market Expert

The Labor Market Expert

By Nicholas Wearne, Associate Attorney

In addition to you and your attorney, there will be a hearing monitor, the judge, and a labor market expert present at your hearing for social security disability benefits.  This blog post focuses on the labor market expert and his/her part in the hearing process.

In order to qualify for social security benefits you must show that you cannot do your past work, nor can you do any other “relevant work.”  What is relevant work?  Well that depends on your age, what kind of work you did in the past, among other things.  The labor market expert is a job specialist who gives an opinion about what a person can and cannot do as far as “relevant work”. 

What usually happens is the judge will ask a number of hypothetical questions, for example, “If I believe the claimant is limited to 10lbs lifting and cannot sit for more than one hour, is there any relevant work that he/she can do?” The vocational will then give an expert opinion about “relevant work”.  The judges normally do not decide whether a person will be approved during the hearing thus they will get ask a broad range of hypothetical questions. 

How Does the Doctor Get Paid in Arizona Work Comp Claim?

One of the good things about Arizona workers/workmans compensation is that an injured worker has 100% coverage of all medical expenses related to his or her injury. Coverage of the injury can last for the entire lifetime of the injured worker.

The insurance carrier pays the medical providers directly based on a fee schedule set by the Industrial Commission of Arizona. A.R.S. 23-908 sets the maximum fee that a physician or pharmacy can charge for treatment or medications. Many times the insurance carrier negotiates a special lower rate with a provider and that may be the reason they want you to treat with a specific doctor.

For the most part, the Arizona Workers Compensation fee schedule pays substantially more than private insurance or Medicare, so many doctors are eager to treat injured workers. The fee schedule is set by taking the fee schedules of 7 other states and calculating the 75th percentile of what they pay for different medical treatments. Fees for durable medical equipment, nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, and orthopedic devices are not set in the fee schedule.

The industrial commission of Arizona reviews the fee schedule yearly rotating through the different types of treatment every four years. For more thorough information about the fee schedule, see the Industrial Commission website at http://www.ica.state.az.us/Director/DIR_FSFAQs2010.aspx

Chad T. Snow is an attorney who limits his practice to representation of injured workers before the Industrial Commission of Arizona and Social Security Administration. He and his associates at Snow, Carpio, and Weekley can be reached at (602) 532-0700 in Phoenix, or (520) 647-9000 in Tucson.

What is a Vocational Expert in Arizona Work Comp Claim?

Any time an injured worker in Arizona is trying to prove that he or she has lost earning capacity as a result of their industrial injury, it is usually necessary to hire a vocational expert, otherwise known as a labor market expert or consultant (VE, LMC).  This is a person who is trained to know the physical and vocational requirements of every job in a specific labor market.  The LMC is then given the vocational profile and work restrictions of the injured worker, and they then identify jobs that exist in significant numbers in the labor market where the injured worker lives, that they should be able to do even with their permanent restrictions. 

In cases where the Loss of Earning Capacity (LEC) is disputed, the applicant and the insurance carrier both usually retain their own LMC's.  The LMC's give testimony at a hearing trying to convince the judge that their opinion as to the injured worker's employability is more probably correct. 

Labor market experts are a very important part of obtaining permanent benefits and are usually well worth the investment of $400-1,000 that they cost.  For more information, see our website at Snow, Carpio, and Weekley.


Snow, Carpio, and Weekely are attorneys who have represented thousands of injured workers in Arizona since 2000.  They have offices in Phoenix and Tucson Arizona.