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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.
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Can injured workers choose their own attending physician?
Yes.
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What benefits are available for injured workers?
Medical benefits, wage replacement benefits, permanent partial disability, permanent total disability, vocational rehabilitation.
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Limited medical treatment is allowed until?
a condition is fixed and stable (maximum medical improvement).
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Treatment requested must be . . .
curative; palliative treatment (treatment to temporarily relieve symptoms) is not allowed once a condition is fixed and stable.
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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.
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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.
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Loss of earning power benefits are only available . . .
while the claim is open
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At claim closure, an injured worker may receive an award for a . . . (loss of function) of the affected area.
permanent partial disability.
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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.
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Are pain and suffering awards available?
No.
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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.
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Attorney fees may not exceed . . .
30% of benefits obtained, maximum fees on pension are less.
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If the claim has been closed for less than . . .
then a protest or appeal can be filed to the closing order.
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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.
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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.
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What is the significance of a "no-fault" workers compensation system?
Workers have a right to benefits even if they are at fault.
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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.
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Upon application, fees can be determined by the
Department of Labor and Industries or the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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When a covered worker suffers and industrial injury, the claim is initiated . . .
by filing of an accident report with the Department.
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Claims for industrial injuries must be filed within . . .
one year of the date of injury.
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Failure to file a claim within the one-year deadline . . .
will forever preclude the injured worker from securing benefits for the industrial injury.
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To be compensible, an industrial injury must occur while the worker is . . .
acting in the course of employment.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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