The Guides has been adopted by many jurisdictions as the reference of choice for evaluating permanent impairment. The Guides is formally accepted through adoptive language in each jurisdiction—s statutes (laws passed by a state legislature or the US Congress) or regulatory code (laws promulgated by administrative agencies such as a state workers—compensation board). It is this statutory or regulatory adoptive language which determines which edition of the Guides is mandated in a particular jurisdiction.
The adoptive language concerning the Guides falls into one of three types. The first type specifies a particular edition of the Guides to use. For example, Alaska requires use of the third edition (1988) (Alaska Admin Code Tit 8, Sec 45.122). Although this type of language is unambiguous, it fails to take into account subsequent editions. As a result, states like Alaska continue to...
