Introduction. If you are injured while on the job, your employer is required to pay for all your reasonable and necessary medical treatments, AND pay a portion of your lost wages if you are not able to work. The law requires all employers to either buy Workers' Compensation insurance for these claims, or to certify that they are self-insured. Your employer cannot fire you or demote you simply because you make a Workers' Compensation claim.
If you are hurt on the job - here's what you need to do:
Report your injury to your employer immediately. Your employer should provide you with prompt medical treatment and should file a First Report of Injury Form with their workers' compensation insurance carrier. Do not delay in reporting your injury, as this gives the insurance company a chance to contest your claim.
Get prompt medical attention. Your employer should send you to a hospital, the company medical facility, or a physician as soon as possible after you are injured.
File an official claim as soon as possible. Filing a "written notice of claim" puts your claim on record. A form 30-C is best for this purpose, and is available from any Workers' Compensation Office or the Workers' Compensation Commission's Education Services. The statute of limitations for filing a compensation claim for an accidental injury is one year from the date of the injury. There are other time limits for repetitive trauma claims or occupational disease claims. If your employer wants to contest your claim, you must receive written notice of a denial of the claim (describing the reasons for it) or your employer must begin making worker's compensation payments "without prejudice" within 28 calendar days.
Contact your employer's workers' compensation insurance carrier, if you don't get a benefit check within two weeks of becoming disabled. To start payments the insurance carrier needs the First Report of Injury Form and a wage statement from your employer, a medical report from your physician confirming that your injury is work-related and that you are disabled by it, and also needs to know your federal tax filing status and the number of exemptions shown on your federal tax return. If only the wage statement is missing, the carrier can usually send an advance payment until it comes in.
Benefits Under The Connecticut Workers' Compensation Act
Temporary Total Disability - Temporary Total (TT) Disability benefits are essentially "wage replacement" benefits which are paid by your employer's workers' compensation insurance carrier while you are unable to perform any type of work due to your work-related injury or illness. TT benefits begin on the fourth calendar day of disability from work, but if the disability lasts for seven or more calendar days, payment will be made retroactively to cover all the days of disability from work. (The day of an injury is not counted as a "day of disability" from work.)
For injuries/illnesses occurring on or after July 1, 1993 - Weekly TT benefits are equal to 75% of your after-tax earnings (federal and state taxes and FICA) for the 52-week period prior to the injury/illness - this TT benefit may not exceed 100% of the State Average Weekly Wage.
Recurrence or Relapse from Recovery - If you return to work from an injury, but then have a recurrence or relapse from recovery, you will again be eligible to receive workers' compensation benefits and your compensation rate at that time will be based on your original TT benefit rate (with any applicable cost-of-living adjustments) or the TT rate based on your earnings at the time of recurrence or relapse, whichever is higher. TT rates for recurrences or relapses are handled the same as for "original" rates, dependent upon the date of injury or illness - see "Temporary Total Disability" in the list of benefits.
Permanent Partial Disability - If your attending physician determines you have reached maximum medical improvement and that you have sustained a permanent partial disability (partial loss of function of a body part) he must provide a disability rating, usually on a Form 42 or in a narrative medical report. A disability rating marks the end of other worker's compensation wage benefits, and makes you eligible to receive weekly Permanent Partial Disability (PPD) benefits for a specific number of weeks. The PPD benefit rate is your base benefit rate as established at the time of the injury or first diagnosis of the occupational illness.
The number of weeks of payments you will receive depends upon your disability rating-- the higher the rating, the more weeks of payments you will receive.
Vocational Rehabilitation - If you cannot return to your usual work because of a significant permanent impairment, you may be entitled to vocational rehabilitation. If eligible, your rehabilitation program will be paid for by the Workers' Compensation Commission's Rehabilitation Services. For more information, call (860) 493-1500.
The Commission's Education Services can be reached, toll-free in Connecticut, at 1-800-223-WORK. More information, and a list of forms, is available on the Workers' Compensation Web Site at http://wcc.state.ct.us.
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Our main offices are located in Stamford, Connecticut, but you can reach us at any of our three convenient Fairfield County locations by calling 877-293-6717 or by contacting us online with a brief description of your situation. You can speak with a lawyer directly about your case. Initial consultations are always provided free of charge and appointments can be made for evenings, weekends, and off-site locations.
You will pay no fees or costs unless we recover compensation in your case.
