INJURED WORKER’S HAVE RIGHTS

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What is Workers’ Compensation?
Workers’ compensation is a system of laws designed to provide injured workers with specific benefits and a legal forum in which disputes can be resolved between injured workers, employers and in which disputes can be resolved between injured workers, employers and insurance companies. A workers’ compensation claim is not a lawsuit against your employer; it is simply a request for insurance benefits.

What Happens If You've Been Hurt On The Job?
All physical injuries and diseases that result from your job duties or work environment are covered by workers' compensation except for self-inflicted injuries, injuries from attacks by others for reasons not related to employment, or injuries resulting from self-intoxication.

In order to receive workers’ compensation benefits under California’s Workers' Compensation Laws, you must report your job-related health problem to your employer as soon as possible after it occurs. Your employer must then file a claim with the company's insurance carrier so that your compensation will be paid. There's no need to prove that your employer is at fault for your injuries in order to receive your work comp benefits.

However, a number of other obstacles may stand in the way of collecting benefits in your workers' compensation case. Your company and its insurer might say that your health problem isn't job-related, or may disagree on the seriousness of your injury - and therefore refuse to pay all or part of your claim. An employer may try to prevent you from filing your claim, or try to retaliate when you collect benefits. And as if these weren't enough, our state's Work Comp Laws present a complicated maze of rules and procedures in which an injured worker could become hopelessly lost.

What are the Benefits?

There are four basic benefits:
1. MEDICAL TREATMENT:
You have the right to select your treating doctor and receive all medical treatment reasonably necessary to cure all relieve that effects your injury, potentially for life.

2.TEMPORARY DISABILITY:
Payment of two-thirds of your average weekly gross pay, with certain maximum and minimum limits; it is paid every two weeks while you ate off work and undergoing active medical treatment.

3. PERMANENT DISABILITY:
If you don’t complete recover from the effects of your injury, you may be entitled to a monetary award. The amount of the award (and the weekly rate at which it is paid) depends mainly on how your injury limits your activities; it is also affected by your age, your occupation, and your earnings at the time of your injury. After your condition has been declared permanent and stationary, PD checks compensate you for your permanent inability to compete in the open labor market or whole person impairment for the 2005 schedule.

4. VOCATIONAL REHABILITATION:
If you are no longer able to do your old job, and your employer does no offer you another, you may be entitled to vocational rehabilitation, which is designed to help injured workers return to work. If you qualify, a plan to return to work will usually be developed by a vocational counselor or with the supervision of your attorney. Generally, you are only entitled to one plan, which must take place within California and must not exceed 52 weeks and $16,000.00. If you do not accept vocational rehabilitation, you can trade this benefit for cash. If you accept it, you may be entitled to certain services and benefits. 2004 injuries do not get vocational rehabilitation, they get a Supplemental Job Displacement Voucher that ranges from $4,000.00 to $10,000.00 depending on level of disability. In some cases the Voucher may have a cash value. Vocational Rehabilitation has abolished by your Legislature for 2005 or later injuries. Sorry, thanks for playing.


REMEMBER: Your employer and the insurance company have attorneys advising them about your case. You are entitled to do the same.

ClevelandMetzLaw@aol.com

Fact sheets for injured workers