In the memorandum opinion of Walk v. Penn State Univ. (WCAB), the Commonwealth Court has upheld the ability of a vocational expert to rely on any competent information in formulating their opinions. In Walk, a WCJ modified the claimant’s benefits based on an LMS. The claimant appealed, alleging the vocational expert’s opinion was incompetent because they did not rely on one of the 3 sources enumerated in Section 306(b)(2). The Board affirmed, as has Commonwealth Court. In holding that the expert’s opinion was competent, the Court stated, “The expert is free to use any of those three sources, or other sources, in the market survey.” This decision upholds the long-standing common law which holds that, in Pennsylvania, there are no legal restrictions on the information relied upon by an expert. This also serves as a reminder that the LMS remains a viable tool for modifying benefits. In this case, the employer was able to successfully modify the claimant’s benefits rate from $512.50 to $21.33 per week.
