Amazon’s workers’ comp strategy backfires in Tennessee back injury case

But the pain did not stop. Over the following months, the worker cycled through medical providers. A panel physician diagnosed sacroiliac joint pain and assigned work restrictions Amazon did not accommodate. Amazon then gave him a panel of pain management specialists. A nurse practitioner recommended an injection he declined – previous ones had not helped. When he returned months later and saw a different provider, an MRI was ordered. No follow-up was set to review the results. 

What caught the court’s attention was what Amazon was doing behind the scenes. Its claims adjuster stated the company had “sent Mr. Brar to a new physician to investigate preexisting injuries, impairment rating, and surgical candidacy.” Amazon also sent the MRI-ordering provider a causation letter – attaching a 2022 medical record from a different doctor involving a prior injury. The letter did not ask whether the provider agreed with the existing impairment rating. It asked whether the impairment was zero percent. 

The court called it out. Amazon, it held, was seeking “a negative causation opinion under the guise of providing ‘second opinions’ – all while not paying temporary disability benefits.” 

The Tennessee Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims ordered Amazon to immediately schedule the worker a return visit with his original treating physician, with proof of compliance due within seven business days. 

On temporary disability, the worker came up short. No physician since the April 2025 finding had connected his condition to the workplace injury or stated a duration of disability. The court acknowledged his credible testimony and visible discomfort at the hearing but held he had not met his burden of proof.