S. Hensley v. State Fund

12/16/2020 SYNOPSIS OF THE CASE Case Number: DA 19-0523 2020 MT 317, DA 19-0523: SUSAN HENSLEY, Petitioner v. MONTANA STATE FUND, Respondent.1 In a divided opinion, the Montana Supreme Court upheld a workers’ compensation statute that denies impairment benefits to workers whose injury results in no permanent wage loss and places them in a “Class 1” impairment as determined by a new edition of guidelines issued by the American Medical Association. The law, passed in 2011, changed the rule that previously allowed all workers with any functional impact from the injury to receive an…