Employers don’t love watching their workman’s comp premiums go up. They don’t love holding a job for an injured worker. And insurance companies don’t love paying claims. So there are dozens of little legal loopholes these entities can slip through.You can avoid handing them the ability to slip through some of them by avoiding actions which give them an excuse. Here are some of the most common reasons workman’s comp benefits get suspended or denied. Avoid these actions to keep the flow of benefits coming. 1. Failing to report the injury to your employer. While it seems counter intuitive, it’s important to report the injury to your employer. And you should do your best not to leave the scene of the accident until you’ve done it.This establishes a few important facts. That you were on the job, and not, say, on break, when the injury occurred. That the employer is
Read MoreWorkman’s compensation isn’t straightforward. Like any legal proceeding, there are a lot of steps to get through. And that means a lot of places you can derail your own claim if you’re not careful. #1) Failing to report to your employer. Creating an incident report and giving it to your supervisor and HR is going to be your first step unless you’re unconscious and unable to move after your injury, or are too hurt in other ways. Reporting starts the claim. And while this might worry you, the truth is the incident report is the first piece of evidence the accident took place on the job. The last thing you want is for your employer to try to make a case that the injury took place while you were at home. Remember, “fault” doesn’t enter into a workman’s comp claim. What matters is that you were injured while working, period.
Read MoreTechnically, New Jersey law strictly forbids your employer from firing you for filing a workman’s comp claim. It also forbids your employer from discriminating against you in other ways, as well. Employers are certainly advised to be very careful about firing an employee who is out on a workman’s comp claim. See also: How to Handle Minor Injuries in the New Jersey Workplace. The law can’t keep your situation from becoming complicated. For example, workman’s comp has to continue to cover you until you reach maximum medical improvement, whether your employer chooses to try to terminate you or not. This includes lost wage benefits. Once you’ve reached maximum medical improvement the employer has a little wriggle room. For example, if you have work restrictions your employer may tell you they can’t accommodate those restrictions and terminate your employment at that point. Many employers don’t terminate, but attempt to retaliate in
Read MoreIf you are one of the 22,000 people in New Jersey who has been authorized to use medical marijuana to manage your pain, then this issue is bound to cause you some worry when you’re in the middle of a workman’s comp claim. As it happens, this is an issue that’s been getting some resolution recently. A Recent Case In the 2018 case McNeary v. Freehold Township the Honorable Judge Lionel Simon ordered Mr. McNeary’s workman’s comp insurance company to cover the cost of his medical marijuana use so long as a doctor was willing to continue to provide evidence of his need for it. In his ruling, Simon said that it was clear to him that the legislative intent of federal drug laws is to “curtail the use and distribution of illicit narcotics for the purposes of the overall general health.” He said he did not believe the New
Read MoreThere are over 127,000 temporary workers in the state of New Jersey. And if you’re one of them, you may be surprised to learn you absolutely are entitled to workman’s comp if you get injured on an assignment. There’s a reason not many people know. For one thing, some publications erroneously report temp workers aren’t entitled to workman’s comp. What they might mean is the third-party employer who owns the job site isn’t responsible for it. And temp employees don’t often get it, in part because employers are all-too-willing to lie about it. Knowing your rights is the first step to protecting yourself. You probably need workman’s comp even more than full-time employees do. Workplace conditions can be more dangerous for temporary workers than for full-time employees. There are three reasons for this. First, light industrial jobs dominate the industry, which means we’re already talking about warehouse and assembly jobs
Read MoreIf you suffer a workplace accident the consequences are immediate. After a workplace accident, you need medical attention and time off work – in the event of a serious accident, you need emergency care and weeks (or longer) to recover. These ramifications of an injury or illness are costly and there is every reason to worry about the financial consequences of a workplace accident. In New Jersey, the state government has recognized the swift and cutting impact of a workplace accident and designed the process for a workers compensation claim to follow suit. An employee is entitled to temporary disability benefits when unable to work for seven days. The first workers compensation check should arrive within two weeks of reporting your workplace accident. What if this isn’t the case for your workers compensation claim? Some employees wait much longer for their workers compensation claim to begin reimbursement of medical costs
Read MoreNJ workplace injuries can result from carelessness, poor training, or repetitive activities. The nearly endless causes of employee accidents and injuries are often dependent on the type of work environment and duties of an employee. However, there is one cause of NJ workplace injuries that span offices, factories, construction sites, and hospitals, and that is fatigue. In a hospital, where doctor and nurses are working ten, twelve, and fifteen-hour shifts, it is easy to recognize how fatigue plays a roll in NJ workplace injuries. But accidents arising from fatigue and sleepiness are also common in workplaces where the shifts are shorter and physical demands lower. Here are five ways fatigue is impacting a variety of workplaces in NJ. #1: Fatigue Isn’t Always Tied to Sleep We generally connect fatigue with a lack of sleep or rest, but studies have shown that this isn’t always the case when it comes to
Read MoreIt can take anywhere from a couple months to half a year for workplace accidents and injuries statistics to work their way into the public sphere. In this case, workers’ compensation practitioners and businesses are just seeing the final numbers for 2017 and estimates for 2018 here in December. What do these new numbers tell us about workplace accidents in recent years? Data from the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the number of fatal workplace accidents dropped from 2016 to 2017 and the approximate numbers for 2018 show another slight decrease this past year. Specifically, in 2017, the fatal injury rate was 3.5 fatalities per 100,000 full-time equivalent (FTE) workers in the United States. This number is down from 3.6 fatalities reported in 2016. The data on fatal workplace accidents also tells us a lot more about injuries, illnesses, and infamously dangerous industries in the United States
Read MoreIf you look for a list of workspaces and professions with the most workplace injuries, you are unlikely to see jobs like account manager or sales representative make the list. These jobs are frequently done at an office and behind a desk. A seemingly safe workspace compared to construction sites and factory floors. Yet, there are several common injuries that still afflict traditional offices in NJ. Similar to other workplaces in NJ, a substantial number of common injuries in the office can be easily avoided through training and proper procedure. A separate handful of office injuries are more difficult to tackle because these common injuries are inherent to the work and design of an office. What are the most common injuries in NJ offices and how can you avoid them? Read this post to find out. #1: Ergonomic Injuries From Sitting and Typing While the work in your office might
Read MoreThere are some jobs in New Jersey and the United States as a whole that appear inherently more dangerous than others. For example, the use of heavy machinery and heavy lifting in construction makes it an obvious workplace for employees injured by equipment, electric shocks, improper use of tools, and manual lifting or pushing. Similarly, the dangers of working in a restaurant or other hospitality setting are readily apparent. There are slick floors, spilled beverages, and a lot of time standing. The longer a waitress or waiter is on a shift, the greater increase there is in employees injured by slips and falls. Finally, we can look to firefighters and police officers as brave individuals taking on a job with evident dangers. These first responders are thrown into chaotic and dangerous situations as part of their job description. These Surprising Jobs Have a High Number of Injured Employees On the
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