Workers Compensation

Workers Compensation law is founded on humanitarian principles and provides in the interest of justice benefits for the protection of those unfortunate to suffer work-related injuries. The workers compensation system effectuates a trade-off which the General Assembly deemed beneficial to both employees and employers. The employer assumes an obligation to contribute to the maintenance of a common fund, but receives in return immunity from full liability in a court action based upon a work-related injury. The employee surrenders the right to recover damages to the full extent of all provable injuries sustained, but receives in return the right to receive through a speedy and inexpensive procedure specified sustenance benefits in every work-related injury, regardless of any contributory conduct by the employee. Because the fund is held in trust for claimants, conservation of money in the fund does not constitute a legitimate basis for denying compensation to deserving claimants. The compensation law does not, however, create a general insurance fund to provide benefits to injured employees in general; it covers only those injuries which occur in the course of and which arise out of employment. The intendment of workers' compensation legislation is to provide reasonable compensation to all injured employees rather than to award full compensation to employee victims of employer negligence, and to deny any compensation to employees injured by other causes.

The General Assembly has devised a compensation scheme codified in R.C. && 4123.56,4123.57, and 4123.58 to compensate a worker for any loss sustained on account of a work-related injury. R.C.& 4123.56 (A) provides for temporary total disability compensation when an injured worker is temporarily unable to return to the former position of employment, or the position held when injured. R.C. & 4123.56 (B) provides for an award to an injured worker who suffers a wage loss as a result o returning to employment other than the former position of employment or as a result of being unable to find employment consistent with the claimants physical restrictions. R.C. & 4123.57 authorizes compensation for partial disability based upon a calculation of the percentage of the employee's permanent disability and for scheduled losses. These sections countenance an award of damages. R.C. & 4123.58 authorizes the payment of compensation for permanent total disability until the claimant's death. The dispositive question is whether the claimant is unfit for sustained remunerative employment. In addition to the above compensation, every injured worker is entitled to receive such medical, nursing, and hospital services authorized by the statute.

If you need additional information concerning the Ohio Workers' Compensation system, read Fulton on "Ohio Workers' Compensation Law", Second Edition, Anderson Publishing Co. or contact Philip J. Fulton and Associates at 1-800-760-2846. Also, more information can be found at the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation [http://www.bwc.state.oh.us/].

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