Younkin vs. Zimmer, et al, Michigan Supreme Court – The Michigan Supreme Court, in Younkin vs. Zimmer, reversed a lower court ruling that the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) could not close the Flint office. The Supreme Court ruled that the plaintiff failed to prove that the statute provided a right for the hearing within the county where he was injured. The court specifically held that the obligation to provide a hearing in the “locality” of the injury allowed the worker’s compensation agency to create hearing districts that encompassed more than one county. If that were not compliant, the court reasoned that the agency would be required to provide 83 different hearing sites. In so doing, the court found a reasonable interpretation of “locality” allowed Mr. Zimmer to create districts and the Diamondale district satisfied a hearing in the “locality” of plaintiff’s Genesee county injury.
