If you are receiving Workers’ Compensation or have recently received Workers’ Compensation you will want to read this blog. You may be entitled to additional Workers’ Compensation!
In June of 2017 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made an important decision with regards to workers compensation law called “Protz v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board”.
If you were receiving workers’ compensation benefits prior to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s 2017 Decision in Protz, you may have had your benefits unfairly and unconstitutionally limited.
Prior to this recent decision insurance carriers were allowed to limit benefits available for injured workers to only 500 weeks of benefits. That meant that if you had a disabling permanent injury but an impairment rating evaluation determined that your disability affected less than fifty (50%) percent of your total body, your benefits were limited to only another 500 weeks of partial disability payments.
In addition, another recent ruling has determined that any claimant who had their benefits modified from full to partial benefits based upon such an unconstitutional impairment rating evaluation now has the right to seek reinstatement to full benefits. There is one provision, however. In order to accomplish this, those affected claimants must file their Petition either while they are still within their 500 week partial disability period or within three (3) years of the date of their last compensation payment.
It is absolutely necessary that a Petition for Reinstatement be immediately filed in order to have benefits which were unconstitutionally restricted now returned to total disability status.
Any claimant who does make such a filing MUST prove that the work-related injury continues. Then a workers’ compensation judge must credit the claimant’s testimony and other evidence presented over any evidence the employer presents to the contrary.
If you or a loved one had their workers’ compensation benefits limited due to an impairment rating evaluation, it is time to take immediate action. We may be able to help.
