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Ashcraft & Gerel
LLP
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Maryland was the first state in the United States to enact a workers compensation law, having passed its first law in 1902. Maryland's present workers comp law requires all employers to purchase workers compensation insurance coverage or, in the alternative, to apply and qualify with the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission for self-insured status. The failure of a Maryland employer to purchase workers' compensation insurance coverage is a crime. Virtually all employers and employees are covered under Maryland's workers comp law. Independent contractors are not covered by workers compensation, and, as in most states, an employer may defend a Maryland workers compensation claim by asserting that the employee was actually not an employee at all, but rather, an independent contractor and, therefore, not covered by workers compensation. Additional potential defenses that can be raised by a defense lawyer include, but are not limited to, jurisdiction of the claim in the State of Maryland, the statute of limitations for the filing of the claim in Maryland, and causal relationship of any medical condition to the alleged injury.
The basic qualification for an injury or medical condition to be covered under the Maryland Workers' Compensation Act is that the employee must have sustained either an accidental personal injury arising out of and in the course of employment or a compensable occupational disease. While on its face this requirement gives the illusion of being very simple, in reality it is highly complex, even to a Maryland lawyer, and it has given rise to hundreds, if not thousands of appeals by lawyers seeking expansion or narrowing of its meaning. The injured Maryland worker is well advised to immediately seek a Maryland lawyer experienced in handling Maryland Workers' Comp cases. One need only note that Maryland employers and insurers have lawyers regularly advising them on how to defend workers' compensation claims to demonstrate that there is no reason why an injured worker should not also have an attorney.
After having established that an injury is covered, there are four basic types of disability benefits covered by workers comp. In addition, there are death benefits and medical benefits.
Maryland workers comp disability benefits can be broken down into temporary total, temporary partial, permanent partial and permanent total disability benefits. The nature (but not the precise definitions) of these four types of disability can almost be gleaned from the words themselves and their combinations. Temporary total disability exists when a Maryland worker is under active medical treatment, has not yet reached maximum medical improvement and cannot return to work. Temporary partial disability is the status of a workers comp claimant who is still not yet at the point of maximum medical improvement but is able to do some work, whether it is light duty, part time or a combination of both. Permanent partial disability exists when a worker is at maximum medical improvement but has been left with a residual permanent condition that does not render the worker unable to work. Finally, permanent total disability exists when a Maryland worker is at maximum medical improvement but has been left with a residual condition that renders him permanently unable to do any substantial gainful work.
Maryland's Workers' Compensation law provides that an injured Maryland worker who is temporarily totally disabled is entitled to receive two-thirds (2/3) of his average weekly wage at the time of his injury. There is no time limit on the duration of temporary total disability benefits. There is also a cap on the weekly amount of the compensation benefits that is based on a formula that takes into account the average weekly wage of all workers in the State of Maryland for the year of the injury.
In Maryland, temporary partial disability compensation benefits are fifty (50) percent of the difference between the workers' average weekly wage before the injury and the wage earning capacity upon return to part time or light duty work. Again there is a cap on the weekly compensation benefit.
If an injured Maryland worker reaches maximum medical improvement but is unable to return to the work he previously was qualified to perform, the worker is entitled to vocational rehabilitation services, which may consist of additional training, education or job placement services. During the period in which an evaluation for vocational rehabilitation is taking place and then during the period of vocational rehabilitation itself, the Maryland worker is entitled to be paid as though he was temporarily totally disabled.
Permanent partial disability benefits in the state of Maryland are calculated based on a complex formula that includes the percentage of permanent partial industrial disability sustained by the injured Maryland worker, a statutory number of weeks set forth in the law for the particular type of workers comp injury, the employee's average weekly wage, and a cap on the weekly benefit for the year of the injury. The attorney for the worker must obtain a disability rating from a doctor to either the body as a whole or to the limb or extremity that was injured. Injuries limited to individual fingers, hands, arms, toes, feet, legs, eyes and ears are called scheduled members. Injuries to the head, neck, shoulder, hip, back and any other part of the body not included within the listed "scheduled members" are called "other cases" injuries, and compensation is awarded based upon a finding by the Commissioner of a percentage of industrial disability to the body as a whole sustained by the worker. In making this determination of the percentage of industrial disability under "other cases" a workers comp attorney will present evidence to the Commissioner at a hearing of, among other things, the percentage impairment ratings of the doctors, the age, education, experience and training of the injured worker.
After a Maryland worker receives a permanent partial disability award, a lawyer can later reopen the comp claim based upon proof of a worsening of condition, but there is a time limit of five years from the last payment of any compensation in which the lawyer must file the appropriate documents seeking the reopening.
As indicated, permanent total disability results when the injured worker, as a result of the injury, is rendered permanently unable to return to substantial gainful employment. The weekly compensation benefit is the same as for temporary total disability, but there are annual cost of living increases. The permanently totally disabled Maryland worker is entitled to be paid for the rest of his or her life.
If an injury results in the death of the injured Maryland worker, the dependents of the injured worker are entitled to file a workers compensation claim for death benefits.
The injured worker is entitled to have his causally related medical expenses paid for the rest of his life. There is no deductible or dollar limit on the total of all medical expenses. However, there is a medical fee schedule adopted by the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission to which all medical care providers must adhere, and the injured worker cannot be made to pay the balance of a doctor's bill over what is permitted under the medical fee schedule. Although most medical bills are paid voluntarily by insurance carriers, in the absence of such voluntary agreement, medical fees must first be approved by the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission before collection.
Similarly, all attorney fees are regulated by the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission in accordance with an attorney fee schedule adopted by the Commission. The attorney fee schedule is binding upon all attorneys, and lawyers must first get approval before collecting a fee. Attorneys fees are based on a contingency fee system, meaning they are a percentage of the compensation collected. If no compensation is collected, no attorney fee is owed. The Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission's attorney fee schedule is structured in such a way that anyone can afford to have a lawyer, and since even the most experienced workers compensation lawyers are bound by the fee schedule, it will not cost the injured Maryland worker any more money to have an attorney from a large, experienced firm that has handled thousands of workers compensation claims.
Ashcraft & Gerel's lawyers have been handling Maryland workers' compensation claims for over 50 years. Our lawyers have a reputation for being aggressive and for knowing the fine points of Maryland workers comp law. Often this can make a difference in the amount of compensation you receive, including the amount of any award or settlement. We have four offices in Maryland alone, each with experienced Maryland Workers' Compensation lawyers. If you'd like to speak to an attorney about a Maryland Workers' Compensation claim please feel free to click here to complete the help form on this Web site, email us , or telephone us at one of our Maryland locations. The telephone numbers of our Maryland offices are as follows:
