Many people in the state of Oregon know little about the laws governing workers compensation. They are long, complex, and very few people are taught about them in any formal education.
Oregon State Laws
All employers in Oregon are required to have workers compensation for their employees. There is a large majority of people who believe you only have to have it if the job your company provide is hazardous or if you have over a certain number of employees. However, in reality this is false. There is no waiver for businesses not to have it even if they are small. Everyone must purchase workers compensation insurance and according to the law it must be posted in a visible place.
State law says the the policy should cover an injured worker for at least $50 a week and can be as much as $1051.21 for temporary disability. When it is a permanent disability an injured worker is paid by multiplying the impairment value times 100 times the SAWW (state average weekly rate).
Here is a detailed schedule of Oregon workers compensation benefits.
Laws Regarding Attorneys
You are encouraged to have a professional workers compensation attorney to assist you with your case. They have extensive background and knowledge of all of the rules, small detailed, payment schedules, and filing requirements.
The fees for lawyers of this profession are included in the policy at no charge to you. It is part of the package so failure to no use them is just foolish in most cases. According to state law your mandatory legal allocations are $1,500 for temporary disability, $4,600 for permanent partial disable, and $12,500 for permanent total disability.
Further Information
Keep in mind the waiting period to receive your benefits is three working days. You may choose your health care physician. Many times the workers compensation provider will attempt to steer you to their “approved” doctors but you have the right to decline. By law the choice of who you go to is yours and all you have to do is provide your name and insurance information for treatment at any clinic, hospital, or heath care facility.
It is against the law for your employer to terminate you because you filed a workers compensation claim. Although not easy to prove in court that you were let go on the sole basis of your injury there are stiff civil penalties if there is enough evidence to support it.
There are a lot of cases where employees falsely claim they are injured when they are not. Keep in mind that providers and employers routinely hire private investigators to prevent this from happening. They employee video recordings, surveillance, and interviews with people you know in order to find out if you were a) really injured b) injured as bad as you say and c) injured as a result of your job and not something else like playing sports.
If you need further assistance here is a list of attorneys in the state of Oregon who can assist. Some of these are people I know while others are attorneys who are highly regarded in this field:
Workers Compensation Attorney Newberg,Salem – Jean M. Fischer is a has been doing workers compensation in Salem, McMinnville, and Newberg for over 24 years.
