Understanding Workers’ Compensation
Saginaw, Flint, Traverse City and Lansing, Michigan

Workers’ Compensation is insurance against a job injury. If you are hurt on the job and have Workers’ Compensation , you can apply for compensation to help with medical costs and lost wages. You do not have to prove negligence on the part of your employer because Workers’ Comp is a “no-fault” system.

Three Aspects of Workers’ Compensation

Workers’ Comp has elements of three types of insurance:

• Wage replacement – you can receive disability payments while you recover from your injury and are not receiving wages
• Medical benefits – you can receive reimbursement of your medical expenses
• Death benefits – your family can receive benefits if you lose your life because of a job injury

However, Workers’ Compensation pays no damages for pain and suffering and no punitive damages, two types of compensation that a personal injury lawsuit would offer.

Workers’ Compensation programs are run by the states and each state has its own rules. Michigan’s website for its Workers’ Compensation Agency gives information about benefit amounts, surveys, travel and mileage reimbursement rates, disputes, changes in forms, etc. The calculation program for 2010 is now available.

All Workers’ Compensation systems require that you give up your right to file a lawsuit against your employer for negligence. There are certain forms and procedures you must use when applying and you can access all of them at this site.

Using the Workers’ Compensation Program

If you are injured while working, the first thing to do is fill out an Employee’s Report of Claim form and give it to your employer and mail a copy to the address on the top of the form . He or she will then fill out an Employer’s Basic Report of Injury and submit it to the Workers’ Compensation Bureau, giving you a copy. It is important to look at your copy to make sure it is accurate. If you see any errors, point them out to your employer, and they may be corrected with no problem.

If There is a Dispute

If any dispute should occur between you and your employer, there can be a hearing and the Michigan Bureau can provide a mediator to help resolve it. They can also provide a translator and/or interpreter if there are any language difficulties.

Either you or your employer can petition for a hearing. You would file the form (104a, 104b, or 104c) at the Lansing Workers’ Compensation office. The Bureau would then send a copy to your employer and notify both you and your employer of the time and place of a scheduled hearing. Your employer would be required to respond within 15 days of receiving the notice.

If the Workers’ Compensation Bureau decides that there has not been proper compliance with the law, they can schedule a hearing to look into it. They would give you 30 days notice. If the hearing determines that there has indeed been a lack of compliance, the Workers’ Comp Director can order compliance and there would be 15 days to appeal it. If no appeal is made, the order is considered final. If there is an appeal, the board of magistrates will hold a hearing within 60 days to consider the matter.

You can read more at Workers’ Compensation Frequently Asked Questions and Employment Law.

Quick History of Workers’ Compensation

People have been hurt on the job as long as there have been people and jobs.

• The king of ancient Babylon, Hammurabi, reigned over all the Mesopotamian states for 40 years starting in about 1800 B.C. Among his comprehensive system of laws was one that provided monetary awards for various injuries such as bone fractures, and any permanent disabilities thus caused.
• Similar laws were enacted in ancient Greece, Rome, Arabia, and China. They specified exactly what compensation should be paid for what injury. For example, Arabian law specified that:
• Loss of a thumb joint was equated with loss of half a finger
• Loss of an ear was compensated according to the surface area damaged on the head
• Loss of a sexual organ was compensated according to the severity of the injury
• In the feudal system of the Middle Ages, the Lord of the Manor was bound by the idea of noblesse oblige – that is, it was up to his decency, being a privileged person, to compensate his serfs for their injuries. This led to an arbitrary and inconsistent arrangement, depending on the kindness of different feudal lords.
• English Common Law, brought to the U.S. by early settlers, gave a legal framework for consistency right through the Industrial Revolution. Employers had to be found negligent for a worker to be compensated and if a worker caused his own injury he was not compensated. He had to file a lawsuit which was too expensive for most injured workers.

In the U.S., the first Workers’ Compensation “no-fault” law was passed in Wisconsin in 1911 and all other states followed suit, ending with Mississippi in 1948. At first they were optional for employers. Now they are mandatory with some exceptions and about 80 percent of the U.S. workforce is covered by Workers’ Compensation .

A Workers’ Compensation claim must conform to many rules and deadlines and all paperwork must be correctly completed. If you have a Workers’ Compensation lawyer to help, life will be a lot easier for you. To schedule a free consultation, please call or email our law office today. If you are too injured to come to our office, we will go to you.

Lawyers for the Injured
Jay Trucks & Associates, PC
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