Workers' Compensation

Portland Workers' Compensation Attorneys

If an Oregon worker is injured while in the course and scope of employment, he or she may be able to recover medical services, time loss, permanent partial disability and vocational retraining with workers’ compensation. Other workers’ compensation benefits may be available in the event of permanent total disability or death.

Filing a Workers' Comp Claim

An Oregon workers’ compensation claim must be filed within 90 days, if an injury occurs. If you have a occupational disease workers’ compensation claim, you must file within one year of your awareness of the work-relatedness of the condition or within one year of when a doctor tells you of such work relatedness. To file a workers’ compensation claim, ask your employer for an 801 form. If your employer will not provide you with an 801 form, or if you have questions about filling out and submitting a workers’ compensation 801 form, please contact Welch, Bruun & Green by calling us at 503-221-0870.

What if your claim is denied?

The workers’ compensation insurance company (or claims processing administrator, where an employer is self insured) has 60 days to accept or deny your workers’ compensation claim. If you do not have a letter within 60 days accepting or denying your workers’ compensation claim, contact our lawyers and attorneys. If you receive a denial from the insurance or claims processing administrator, you have 60 days to appeal the denial. If you wait longer than 60 days, it may be very difficult to have the denial reversed. If you have a denial letter, please contact Welch, Bruun & Green by calling us at 503-221-0870.

Acceptance of claim

Sometimes in a workers’ compensation claim, the insurance company will not accept all of the conditions it should. Do not allow the insurance company to play down your workers’ compensation claim. If you believe that the insurance company has not accepted all of the injuries or conditions in your workers’ compensation claim, please contact Welch, Bruun & Green. Call us at 503-221-0870.

Notice of Closure

In an Oregon workers’ compensation claim, at some point, you will be deemed “medically stationary” and you will receive a “Notice of Closure”. The Notice of Closure has two main parts: “impairment” and, where applicable, “work disability”. Impairment and/or work disability form your “permanent partial disability award”. In some cases, you may be entitled to a significant permanent partial disability award for your injury. If you have received a Notice of Closure and disagree with it, whether that disagreement is with the impairment rating, work disability, or whether you are medically stationary as a threshold matter, you have 60 days to request reconsideration of the Notice of Closure. It may or may not be in your interests to appeal your Notice of Closure. If you have questions about your Notice of Closure, please contact Welch, Bruun & Green. Call us at 503-221-0870.

Benefits in an Oregon Workers’ Compensation claim

There are only four benefits you can recover in an Oregon workers’ compensation claim. There are no benefits for “pain and suffering”, as are available, for example, if you are injured in a car accident because of another’s fault. (Please note that where there is a third-party claim, that is, your injuries were caused by the negligence of someone or some entity other than your employer, noneconomic damages are a recoverable item of damages. Please note further that survivor’s benefits are available in a death claim). The four benefits are: Time Loss, Medical Services, Permanent/Partial Disability, Vocational Retraining

Time Loss

If you miss more than 3 days from work, the insurance company must pay you 2/3 of your weekly salary for the time you miss. The time must be authorized by the “attending physician” on your workers’ compensation claim. To calculate your time loss figure, the insurance company generally examines your average weekly salary over the past 52 weeks. If you believe that your time loss rate has been inaccurately calculated, we may be able to help. Please contact Welch, Bruun & Green by calling us at 503-221-0870.

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Contact us about Workers Compensation, for information on the attorneys and about the firm. Or, call us at: 503-221-0870 for a FREE consultation.
There are two types of workers’ compensation claims: injury and occupational disease. An injury is a condition requiring medical services associated with a discrete event. For example, a worker falls off a ladder onto pavement, fracturing his ulna and radius near his wrist. That would be an injury claim, as one can point to an identifiable period of time when the injury - the fractured radius and ulna - occurred. 

An occupational disease, on the other hand, is a condition which arises over a period of time. Let’s say the worker is a mechanic of heavy machinery who uses hand and pneumatic tools seven hours per day and after 6 months develops carpal tunnel syndrome. That may well be an occupational disease claim.  

For both injury and occupational disease claims, medical opinions relating the injury or condition to the work exposure is necessary.  
Examples of common workplace injuries, in rough order of prevalence, are: low back strain; neck strain; shoulder strain; traumatic lumbar disc herniation; labral tear of shoulder; traumatic cervical disc herniation; meniscus tear; rotator cuff tear (supraspinatus tendon); inguinal hernia; post-traumatic lateral or medial epicondylitis; ankle fracture; post-traumatic carpal tunnel syndrome; post-traumatic shoulder bursitis; anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear; concussion; hip fracture; abdominal, umbilical, or incisional hernias; and other rotator cuff tears (infraspinatus, subscapularis, or teres minor). 

Examples of common occupational disease claims include: noise-induced hearing loss; lateral or medial epicondylitis; carpal tunnel syndrome; deQuervain’s tenosynovitis; plantar fasciitis; certain pulmonary conditions from exposure to toxic substances; cervical and lumbar disc herniations; dermatitis; rotator cuff tendinopathy; and rotator cuff tears. 
After a claim has been accepted, if the accepted condition is the major contributing cause of a new condition, then that new condition may be processed and accepted as part of the original claim. For example, if a person has a lumbar disc herniation, and takes certain pain medication for that condition for years, and then develops a stomach ulcer, the stomach ulcer may be accepted as part of the claim. This is what is known as a “consequential condition.”
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