WORKERS COMPENSATION
At Woliansky
& Doyle, Esqs., we have been handling workers compensation cases in New
Jersey for many years.
If you have had
a traumatic injury or suffer from an occupational disease and you have a
disability which arose out of and in the course of your employment you may be
entitled to benefits regardless of fault. The
New Jersey Legislature provided these benefits by the statute, which created the
Workers Compensation System. Under
this system your employer’s workers compensation insurance carrier or your
employer, if they are self insured, are required to pay you certain benefits.
They are as follows:
 | Workers compensation is statutory not common law. |
| Permanent compensation is based solely on the
percentage of permanent disability sustained by a particular body member or
your total body. |
| The permanent disability compensation award is
calculated based on the state average weekly wage for the year in which you
were injured. |
| The permanency award provides no payment for future
wage loss for pain and suffering. |
| The workers compensation court system is part of the
Executive Branch of New Jersey State Government rather than the Judicial
Branch and functions as an administrative agency. |
| Its Judges are administrative officers.
They are required to review any claims for worker's compensation
benefits. All agreements for
the payment of Workers Compensation Benefits must be submitted for their
approval. |
| The Workers Compensation Judge sets all disbursements
from your award. |
| All our attorney's fees are set the Workers
Compensation Judge and are based on a percentage of your award. The Judge
normally requires your employer to pay a portion of our fees. |
| Generally, where a permanent disability results out of
and in the course of employment absolute workers compensation liability is
imposed upon the employer. Fault
for the accident is generally not an issue. |
| Generally, where workers compensation liability is
established the employer and co-workers are immune from civil suit. |
| All employers must carry workers' compensation
insurance or be approved as self- insureds by the Commissioner of Insurance. |
| There are strict time limits by which the employee
must give notice the employer of the traumatic injury or occupational
disease or be barred from a recovery. |
| We will give immediate notice to your employer of your
client. |
| We will advise you that you must report your claim to
your employer and if you need medical treatment requests that treatment from
your employer. If you do not do
this you may lose your workers compensation medical benefits. |
| At the completion of your treatment we will file a
worker's compensation claim petition. |
| We will have you examined by appropriate expert
workers compensation doctors who will provide us with reports. |
| We will coordinate your examination with your
employer’s examining doctors. |
| Negotiate with your employer’s lawyers. |
| We will make all necessary court appearances. |
| We will keep you abreast of your case and advise you
on how to proceed. |
