Deskbook

  1. What is the statute of limitations for filing WC claims?
    One year of the date of injury. Two years of being informed by a physician, in writing, that a worker's disease/condition is caused, at least in part, by his employment.
  2. Can injured workers choose their own attending physician?
    Yes.
  3. What benefits are available for injured workers?
    Medical benefits, wage replacement benefits, permanent partial disability, permanent total disability, vocational rehabilitation.
  4. Limited medical treatment is allowed until?
    a condition is fixed and stable (maximum medical improvement).
  5. Treatment requested must be . . .
    curative; palliative treatment (treatment to temporarily relieve symptoms) is not allowed once a condition is fixed and stable.
  6. Injured workers, if they are prevented from working for more than three days following their injury or onset of an occupational disease, are generally eligible for . . .
    time loss compensation also known total temporary disability.
  7. If an injured worker, can return to some employment while his claim is open, and the wages are more than 5% less than the wages at the time of the injury, . . .
    loss of earning power benefits should be paid.
  8. Loss of earning power benefits are only available . . .
    while the claim is open
  9. At claim closure, an injured worker may receive an award for a . . . (loss of function) of the affected area.
    permanent partial disability.
  10. If a worker is not able to return to his job, or any other reasonably continuous, gainful employment (at any salary or skill level), he or she may be found . . .
    permanently and totally disabled.
  11. Are pain and suffering awards available?
    No.
  12. An injured worker, or the employer, has the right to appeal or protest any order within . . .
    sixty days of the datethat the order was communicated to the worker/employer.
  13. Attorney fees may not exceed . . .
    30% of benefits obtained, maximum fees on pension are less.
  14. If the claim has been closed for less than . . .
    then a protest or appeal can be filed to the closing order.
  15. If the claim has been closed for longer than sixty days, then an
    "Application to Reopen" or an "Aggravation Application" must be completed by both the worker and a doctor.
  16. In order for claims to be reopened . . .
    a doctor must certify that there is objective evidence of worsening of the medical condition caused by the industrial injury.
  17. What is the significance of a "no-fault" workers compensation system?
    Workers have a right to benefits even if they are at fault.
  18. Does an injured worker have to accept "light-duty," transitional, or temporary job offiers from the employer of injury?
    The consequence for deling a legitimate job offer is that time loss compensation benefits end.
  19. Upon application, fees can be determined by the
    Department of Labor and Industries or the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals.
  20. If the lawyer obtains additional permanent partial disability, loss of earning power, or total temporary disability by way of settlement prior to the presentation of testimony . . .
    the Board can set the fee between ten and twenty five percent of the increased benefits.
  21. If the client does not have a copy of the order he wants to protest, it may be prudent to . . .
    send in a protest to all orders issued in the last sixty days.
  22. Injury means
    a sudden and tangible happening, of a traumatic nature producing an immediate or prompt result, and occurring from without, and such physical conditions as result therefrom.
  23. When a covered worker suffers and industrial injury, the claim is initiated . . .
    by filing of an accident report with the Department.
  24. Claims for industrial injuries must be filed within . . .
    one year of the date of injury.
  25. Failure to file a claim within the one-year deadline . . .
    will forever preclude the injured worker from securing benefits for the industrial injury.
  26. To be compensible, an industrial injury must occur while the worker is . . .
    acting in the course of employment.
  27. acting in the course and scope of employement is typically met by showing
    an employee is acting at the direction and/or in furtherance of the employer's business at the time of injury.
  28. When an employee is required as part of the work process to travel . . .
    coverage extends to virtually any time the worker can be said to benefiting the employer's business. Coverage will extend absent a significant deviation by the employee that removes him/her from the employment setting.
  29. For those workers engagedin dual purpose (personal as well as business),
    coverage will extend unless the work activity was merely incidental to the private deviation from employment.
Author
Anonymous
ID
111132
Card Set
Deskbook
Description
Deskbook
Updated