Branstetter v. TRW/Reda Pump

SUMMERS, Justice:

The Workers’ Compensation Act of Oklahoma requires that reports of physicians used as evidence be made in accordance with the latest Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment issued by the American Medical Association.1 In this case the employer’s examining doctor departed from those Guides, with the explanation that he did so because the claimant did not cooperate fully in the testing process. The trial judge denied benefits based on that report. The Court of Appeals reversed, holding that the doctor’s reasons afforded an insufficient basis for departing from the…