Bridgeport Benefits, Hearings, and Appeals in Workers’ Compensation Cases

When you work in Bridgeport and you are injured on the job, you are covered by Connecticut’s workers’ compensation law. This includes administrative protections for your claim, wage replacement benefits, and rules for your safe return to work. You can learn more on this page.

Connecticut’s Workers’ Compensation Act addresses the claims of workers that were injured on the job. The purpose of this law is to ensure that employees receive wage replacement benefits and necessary medical treatment to compensate them for their workplace injuries. Every employee, regardless of whether they are part-time or full-time, is fully covered by benefits provided by the Workers’ Compensation Act from their very first day of employment.

Potential Benefits

If you have been injured in a Bridgeport workplace accident, you may be eligible to receive the following workers’ compensation benefits:

• Medical Treatment: You have the right to receive all necessary medical care for your injuries. All bills and prescription medicines for your necessary medical care should be fully paid for by your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance provider. You do not have to pay these bills.
• Temporary Partial Disability: When you can perform some work, but not the same kind of work, or the same number of hours that you worked before your injury, you can receive this benefit. This benefit rate is 75% of the after-tax-and-social-security difference between the amount you are currently earning and the amount you could have earned if you had not been injured.
• Temporary Total Disability: When you miss time from work because your injury or illness prevents you from working, you are eligible to receive these wage replacement benefits. If your treating doctor confirms that your injury will cause you to miss time from work, you are eligible to receive wage replacement benefits at a rate of 75% of your after-tax-and-social-security average weekly wage, based upon the wages that you earned prior to the injury (up to 52 weeks).
• Permanent Partial Disability: This is meant for the injured worker who has sustained a permanent partial loss of usage of a body part as a result of their workplace injury. The exact amount of the benefit that will be received is based upon the body part that was injured, the doctor’s determination of the percentage of that body part that has been disabled, and the employee’s basic workers’ compensation rate.
• Job Retraining: If you can’t do the same job because of the extent of your injuries, you can receive free vocational rehabilitation and training from the Workers’ Compensation Commission’s Rehabilitation Services.

Hearings and Appeals

It may be that you and your employer disagree about how to proceed in your workers’ compensation case. Our law provides for administrative procedures to resolve these disputes. Ultimately, your case will be decided by an Administrative Law Judge. There is no jury for workers’ compensation cases. The Administrative Law Judge serves as an impartial mediator and factfinder for workers’ compensation hearings. By law, Administrative Law Judges are nominated by the Governor. Then they are confirmed by the General Assembly.

The first level of the administrative hearing is the Informal Hearing. It is a conference at a District Office, held before one of the Administrative Law Judges. The purpose of this informal conference is for the parties to negotiate and hopefully resolve their disputes. The Administrative Law Judge will also make recommendations to the parties. These are short conferences. If the parties cannot reach an agreement, the issue can move forward to a Formal Hearing.

Formal Hearings are a little more involved. Witnesses can testify under oath and exhibits are submitted into evidence. There is also a stenographic record of the hearing. Before the Formal Hearing, the Administrative Law Judge will hold a Pre-Formal Hearing to attempt to resolve issues and disputes ahead of the Formal Hearing. After the Formal Hearing, the Judge makes a written decision. This is either an award or a dismissal. The written decision is binding barring an appeal to the Compensation Review Board (CRB).

The CRB is made up of Administrative Law Judges and the Workers’ Compensation Commission Chairman. The CRB does not re-try the case. Instead, it determines if the original Judge in the case reached a valid decision. It is rare for the CRB to overturn a decision.

Protect Yourself With Our Help

If you work in Bridgeport and you have been hurt at work, you have rights under the Connecticut’s Workers’ Compensation Act. Our lawyers can walk you through this process to ensure that you receive all benefits that you are entitled to receive. You do not have to take on a case alone. We are here to help.