Tag Archives: statute of limitations

State Laws Determine Worker’s Rights: Work Comp Benefits, Process Vary by State

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Many workers are hired in one state but are required to attend orientation or participate in a hiring process in another state because their potential employer is principally located and doing business there. Once they are hired and accept the job, they are then required to work in another state for various reasons. In these situations, many workers do not realize that a different state’s laws could apply to their workers’ compensation claim if they are injured in a state that is

  1. different from where they were hired,
  2. different than where they accepted the job,
  3. different from where their employer is principally located or performing work, or
  4. even different than where they currently live. 

If you have been injured in another state, you may be eligible to have your workers’ compensation benefits determined by another state’s laws. This is important, as the benefits you could be entitled to are different in every state. In certain respects, the differences are significant in terms of the amount of weekly benefits, permanent benefits, or type and duration of medical care you may be able to receive.

The right to choose your family physician to treat you for your injury or the amount and duration of the disability benefits you may be entitled to are significantly different in every state. Let’s consider a few pairs of cities:

  • Omaha, Nebraska & Council Bluffs, Iowa
  • Sioux City, Nebraska & Sioux City, Iowa
  • Nebraska City, Nebrsaka & Harlan, Iowa

These cities in different in Iowa and Nebraska border each other, and a great number of residents from one are employed and work in the other. If you are injured in one state but live in another, and depending on where you were hired or where you were when you accepted the employment, you may have a Nebraska or Iowa workers’ compensation claim, or even both. 

Nebraska

If your employment or your accident has any ties to the state of Nebraska, your employer is required to file a First Report of Injury with the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court. When this occurs, it is common for the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court to actually mail you a copy of your own First Report of Injury that was filed with the court by your employer. Just because a First Report of Injury was filed in Nebraska and just because the Nebraska Workers’ Compensation Court sends you a copy does not mean you are limited to Nebraska for the benefits that you may be entitled to. 

Iowa

It is also normal for an insurance carrier of the employer to mail you a letter that says, “Your employment agreement, whether in writing or made in person, required your accident to fall under Iowa law,” or some other state’s law. Generally, no one has the right to decide for you which state your case can be determined in. It is a question of each state’s laws that determine where your claim can be processed.

Nebraska and Iowa

As a matter of general practice, if your accident occurred in that state, your claim and benefits can be determined based on that state’s laws. Other things like where your employer is principally located or where your employer regularly performs work can determine if you have a claim in each state. Further, your contract of hire or where you accepted the employment can also play a part, as well as where you were residing at the time of your accident in relation to where your employer was performing work, can also determine which state you may have a claim in. 

These things, as well as what type of benefits each state allow, could make it possible for you to file in both states.

Time Periods to File in Each State

Each state has a certain time period in which to file a claim or action in the compensation court. 

  • In Nebraska, you have two years from the date of accident OR two years from the date of any payment (weekly disability check, medical bill, mileage, prescription) in which to file an action in the compensation court. 
  • In Iowa, a person has two years from the date of accident OR three years from the date of payment of a weekly disability benefit check in which to file an action in the compensation court.  

Beware, however, that payment under one state’s laws may not save your claim in another state. For example, a payment under Iowa law will count toward a payment in Nebraska. However, a payment under Nebraska law will not count toward a payment under Iowa law.

Award, Order or Settlement Agreement for Benefits

It is important to note as well that an award, order or settlement can affect your right to file a claim in another state. 

For example, if one obtains a Court Award, Order or Settlement in Nebraska, this would prevent you from obtaining any benefits in Iowa, if you had the option of pursuing benefits in both states. 

On the other hand, if the same person obtained a Court Award, Order or Settlement in Iowa, a person could still pursue additional benefits in Nebraska that are different than what was provided in Iowa.

In both states, the insurance carrier would be entitled to a credit for what they paid in the other state, but you would still have the opportunity to pursue different and additional benefits in the other states, potentially.    

Summary

The differences in law issues are often very complex. Whatever your situation is, if you think there might be any question as to which state’s laws apply to your case, you should speak to an experienced attorney who can advise you about the laws in each applicable state.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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When Did My Workers’ Compensation ‘Accident’ Occur?

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Nebraska workers’ compensation law states that an accident is “an unexpected or unforeseen injury happening suddenly and violently, with or without human fault, and producing at the time objective symptoms of an injury.” Neb. Rev. Stat. §48-151(2). In our practice, we are often faced with a situation where an injured worker is unable to answer the question: “When did the accident occur?” Often, this is because they don’t even realize they have experienced what Nebraska workers’ compensation law considers to be an “accident.” The plain, ordinary and popular understanding of what “suddenly and violently” means in the English language doesn’t seem to fit with this situation. This is because the injury resulted from repetitive trauma – i.e. an overuse injury – and the worker is unable to point to a particular point in time when an “accident” occurred. They didn’t slip and fall, nothing fell on their foot, they weren’t in a car accident, etc. It just started hurting and affecting how well they could do their job then finally got so bad that they had to seek medical treatment.  The Nebraska Supreme Court recently addressed this issue, and, in the process, reaffirmed and explained Nebraska’s rule for determining when a repetitive trauma injury happened. 

In Nebraska, the phrase “suddenly and violently” means only that the injury manifested at an identifiable point in time. The rule for the last 15 years or so has been that the “identifiable point in time” is essentially when an employee discontinues employment and seeks medical attention. What this means in simpler terms is that the date of accident is whenever an injury got so bad an injured worker had to take off work to go to the doctor. The Supreme Court reaffirmed this rule for a number of reasons, including how simple it is to determine the date of accident, based on this objective criteria. The Court also found that it just makes sense to say that an employee has really experienced a decrease in their employability or earning capacity, and therefore experienced a disability, when they have to take time off work to go to the doctor.   

Why is it important to know the date of accident in a repetitive-trauma case? It is important for a number of reasons, and you should seek the advice of an experienced workers’ compensation attorney for more information and/or assistance with your case. Particularly for injured workers, it is important because it is relevant to when the statute of limitations on the case begins to run. These injuries often start developing years before they get so bad that the worker must take time off to go to the doctor. This fact may discourage injured workers from reporting or pursuing workers’ compensation claims because they think it is too late. It is always important to understand whether your claim is barred by the statute of limitations or not, but knowing when the accident occurred is the first step in that determination. It is also important because the maximum benefit rates available to injured workers for temporary and permanent indemnity benefits are based on what year the accident occurred and change from year to year. Finally, it is important because people change jobs, and companies change ownership. Regardless of how long an injury took to develop, and how many different employers an injured worker performed work for, Nebraska law states that the employer who employed that worker on the date of accident, and their insurance company, is liable to that worker.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

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There IS a Statute of Limitations on Workers’ Compensation Claims

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The term “statute of limitations” means that there is a certain amount of time to bring a legal claim. If that time runs out, the claim can be barred from ever being heard, no matter how legitimate the claim may be. All workers’ compensation claims in any state have some sort of time limitation in which to file a lawsuit. The primary reason for the statute of limitations is to provide some stability so that cases are filed in a timely manner. The longer a case takes before going to trial, the more difficulty a party is likely to experience in terms of locating witnesses, documents, or electronic records.

In Nebraska, the statute of limitations is two years.

In Nebraska, the statute of limitations is two years. More specifically, you must file a lawsuit (or Petition) in the Nebraska Workers Compensation Court within two years of the date of the accident or the date of the last benefit paid (disability indemnity payments, or medical bills payments), whichever is later.

Of course, if any benefits have been paid, that will be the later date. However, when trying to calculate this date, you need to look at the date a check is issued concerning the last disability payment or medical payment made. You cannot assume that simply because you went to your workers’ compensation doctor that the bill was paid by the workers’ compensation carrier.

In Iowa, the time limit in which to file a workers’ compensation claim is two-fold as well. If no weekly disability payments have been made to the injured worker, a worker must file within two years of the date of injury.

In Iowa, the time limit in which to file a workers’ compensation claim is two-fold as well. If no weekly disability payments have been made to the injured worker, a worker must file within two years of the date of injury. If weekly disability benefits have been paid to an injured worker, then the time limit in which to file a claim is three years from the date of the last payment. Unlike Nebraska, medical payments do not count as weekly benefits.

In either state, when it comes to the statute of limitations, it’s better to be safe than sorry. If it’s getting even remotely close to the appropriate time limitation from the date of your injury, you would be best served by contacting a lawyer to determine whether a lawsuit needs to be filed immediately to prevent your claim from being barred forever. Once you miss this deadline, your case is over, no matter how legitimate your injury is.

The offices of Rehm, Bennett, Moore & Rehm, which also sponsors the Trucker Lawyers website, are located in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Five attorneys represent plaintiffs in workers’ compensation, personal injury, employment and Social Security disability claims. The firm’s lawyers have combined experience of more than 95 years of practice representing injured workers and truck drivers in Nebraska, Iowa and other states with Nebraska and Iowa jurisdiction. The lawyers regularly represent hurt truck drivers and often sue Crete Carrier Corporation, K&B Trucking, Werner Enterprises, UPS, and FedEx. Lawyers in the firm hold licenses in Nebraska and Iowa and are active in groups such as the College of Workers’ Compensation Lawyers, Workers' Injury Law & Advocacy Group (WILG), American Association for Justice (AAJ), the Nebraska Association of Trial Attorneys (NATA), and the American Board of Trial Advocates (ABOTA). We have the knowledge, experience and toughness to win rightful compensation for people who have been injured or mistreated.

This entry was posted in Workers' Comp Q & A, Workers' Comp' Basics, Workers' Compensation and tagged .