The Connecticut Workers’ Compensation Act and Milford Workplace Injuries

Injured Milford workers enjoy the protections of the Connecticut Workers’ Compensation Act. This law is meant to ensure that employees receive wage replacement benefits and necessary medical treatment to compensate them for their workplace injuries. Every employee, whether part-time or full-time, is fully covered by benefits provided by the Workers’ Compensation Act from their very first day of employment. You can learn more about compensation on this page.

Milford Benefits

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

Medical Treatment: You have the right to receive all necessary medical treatment for your injuries. All bills and related costs for your necessary medical care should be fully paid for by your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance provider. It is not your responsibility to pay these bills.

Temporary Total Disability: When you miss time from work due to an illness or injury sustained on the job, 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).

Temporary Partial Disability: When you can perform some but not all of the work that you could before their injury, you can receive temporary partial disability. This benefit rate is 75% of the after-tax-and-social-security difference between the amount you are currently earning and the amount that you would have earned supposing no injury occurred.

Permanent Partial Disability: This benefit is paid to the injured worker who has sustained a partial usage loss of a body part that is permanent as the result of their workplace injury. The exact amount of the benefit that will be received is based on 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 perform the same job because of the extent of your injuries, you can receive rehabilitation and training from the Workers’ Compensation Commission’s Rehabilitation Services.

Hearings and Appeals

When employers and injured employees cannot agree on how to proceed in a workers’ compensation case, our law provides for an administrative process to resolve these disputes. There is no jury for workers’ compensation cases. Instead, the cases are decided by an Administrative Law Judge. This person serves as an impartial mediator and fact finder.

The first step involved in the administrative hearing is the Informal Hearing. This is a conference held at a District Office before an Administrative Law Judge. The parties get together at this hearing to negotiate and see if they can come to an agreement. The Judge can weigh in to assist in this process. If the parties cannot reach an agreement, the issue can move forward to a Formal Hearing.

Formal Hearings are like court cases. 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 will make a formal decision. This decision is binding unless an appeal is made to the Compensation Review Board (known as the CRB). However, keep in mind that overturning a decision made in a Formal Hearing is rare.

We Can Help

If you are injured in a Milford workplace accident, you have rights under Connecticut’s Workers’ Compensation Act. Our lawyers can support you and ensure that you receive all benefits that you are entitled to receive. You do not have to represent yourself. We are here to help.