Workers Compensation

New Jersey’s Worker Compensation laws protect the rights of employees who are victims of an accident while working for an employer. The claims of injured workers against their employers are administrative in nature and must be filed in the New Jersey Worker’s Compensation Court. These courts and their judges specialize in the adjudication of rights to injured workers. Lawyers who practice in this area must be familiar with the body of administrative law that defines and regulates this type of claims.

Unlike civil courts of general jurisdiction, an injured worker does not have to prove an act of negligence by his employer in bringing an action. All that is required is that the employee proves that he was working when the injury took place. However, the worker is limited in his recovery by multiple regulations and statutes dealing with worker’s claims. Those regulations puts a “cap” on the amount of money a worker can collect.

I have handled worker’s claims since 1979. Back then, the laws that dealt with worker’s benefits provided limited permanent economic compensation to the workers. As a result of the changes in the law that were enacted in 1986, the weekly permanent rate of employees in New Jersey has been progressively increased from that time forward to make it fairer. I am happy, along with my colleagues, to have seen the changes implemented by the legislature of New Jersey to the Worker’s Compensation laws in order to meet the challenge of providing injured workers with reasonable protection.

I have represented clients in the past in injury cases and occupational claims. An injury case is one that happens as a result of trauma to the body that can be defined in time and place. An occupational case is harder to prove: it occurs as a result of exposure of the body or a body part over time. An example of an “injury claim” is a fracture. An example of an “occupational claim” is Carpal Tunnel Syndrome to one or both hands.

My experience with this type of claims is long, vast and varied. I appear in the Worker’s Compensation Court regularly.