"Workers’ Compensation benefits in the form of medical treatment and temporary and permanent disability payments (“indemnity payments”) are available to those who suffer work-related injuries. These benefits, however, are not always so easily obtainable for an employee. An attorney knowledgeable in New Jersey Workers’ Compensation law can help navigate the sometimes-turbulent waters of obtaining the treatment and indemnity payments to which you are entitled."
Workers’ Compensation
If you are injured at work, make sure your employer is advised of such injury as soon as is practicable. While a delay in such notice will not necessarily disqualify you from obtaining Workers’ Compensation benefits, prompt notice will likely quell any questions as to whether the injury for which you seek such benefits was actually work-related. Since, in New Jersey, your employer is required to provide and pay for the treatment of your work-related injuries, prompt notice will put your treatment on the proper track at its inception, thus helping avoid the existence of outstanding bills or health insurance liens.
As to your treatment, employees are entitled to receive any and all medical treatment necessary to cure and relieve them of the effects of their injuries. The issue of whether or not treatment is “necessary” has been heavily litigated over the years. Fortunately for those workers injured in New Jersey, its Courts have established a rather broad definition of treatment deemed “necessary”. As a result, there are many forms of treatment deemed “necessary”.
In addition to treatment, if your work-related injury prevents you from working for seven (7) days or more, New Jersey law entitled you to receive temporary disability payments equaling 70% of your normal pay. Injured New Jersey employees are entitled to receive temporary disability payments until they can return to work or their recovery has plateaued with a 400 week limit on such benefits.
Finally, an injured New Jersey worker may also be entitled to a permanency award. If an injured employee can demonstrate through objective medical evidence that he or she has sustained a permanent injury that impacts his or her ability to work or his or her non-work activities, he or she is entitled to an award. The amount of such award, received once your recovery has plateaued, depends on the extent of your permanent disability in conjunction with the amount of wages you were receiving at the time of your injury.
Contact us to ensure that your receive the Workers’ Compensation benefits to which you are entitled.
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