Georgia workers’ compensation claims and on-the-job injuries and deaths
Georgia’s workers’ compensation statutes are set forth in Title 34, Chapter 9 of the Official Code of Georgia. This set of statutes, along with the Georgia State Board of Workers’ Compensation’s Rules, Georgia case law and Georgia workers’ compensation administrative judges’ rulings generally comprise the legal landscape that govern on-the-job injuries in the state of Georgia.
Workers’ compensation law in Georgia is very complicated and an intensive and reliable in-depth discussion of the law would require thousands of pages. However, in a very brief fashion it is fair to say that if a person is injured at work in Georgia, he/she (or his/her dependants) is generally entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits (so long as the “employer” is governed under Georgia’s workers’ compensation framework). Simply put, under Georgia workers’ compensation law the only analysis is whether (1) a worker was injured and (2) the injury occurred on-the-job. Negligence is not a typical consideration in workers’ compensation cases (as it is in other types of personal injury matters).
In workers’ compensation cases, reports of the injuries generally must be sufficiently made by the worker to his/her employer within thirty (30) days of the injurious incident to entitle the employee to benefits. And, depending upon the nature of the claim and the benefits sought, a notice of claim has to be communicated in writing to the employer and filed with the Board of Workers’ Compensation in a timely fashion. Georgia workers’ compensation law is form-intensive and very complicated even for experienced attorneys.
Benefits which can be recovered in workers’ compensation cases include:
- weekly wage benefits
- medical benefits
- rehabilitation benefits
- death benefits (including burial expenses and dependency benefits)
- temporary total disability benefits
- temporary partial disability benefits
- permanent partial disability benefits
- permanent total disability benefits
- catastrophic benefits
And some of the bases for workers’ compensations claims include:
- physical injuries
- psychological injuries
- death
- occupational disease
- traumatic hearing loss
- cumulative trauma
- aggravation of pre-existing injuries
- heart attack, stroke, hernia and back injuries
If you or someone you know has suffered an on-the-job injury or death, you would be well-advised to contact a law firm, like The Dow Firm, P.C., for assistance in navigating the treacherous maze that is Georgia workers’ compensation law.
