New Jersey Workers Compensation Lawyer

Were you injured in a workplace accident in New Jersey?

At the Law Offices of David A. DiBrigida, we represent injured New Jersey workers in compensation matters and in the injury claims that run alongside them.

If you were hurt at work, the physician treating you was likley selected by your employer’s insurance carrier rather than by you. That arrangement governs what treatment is authorized, when you are declared able to return, and what permanent effect the injury is recorded as having. Those determinations shape the entire claim. Contesting those determinations is what a New Jersey workers compensation lawyer does. Contact us for a free consultation.

Workers Compensation Lawyer New Jersey

More than 400 licensed insurance companies are authorized to write workers compensation coverage in New Jersey, according to the state’s employer requirements guidance. Every one of them selects the doctors who treat the workers it insures. The Division’s employer guide sets out how a claim is reported and what follows.

A workers compensation lawyer in New Jersey represents injured employees before the Division of Workers’ Compensation and, where the facts allow, in a separate claim against a party other than the employer. Benefits are paid without regard to fault, which is the system’s principal advantage. The corresponding limitation is that an employee generally cannot sue the employer, and that benefits do not compensate pain or the loss of ordinary function at all. Those two features explain nearly every dispute that arises.

Types of Workers Compensation Cases We Handle in New Jersey

Work injury matters are grouped by how the injury arose and by the benefit at issue, since the two together determine what the claim requires.

• Sudden traumatic injuries. A single identifiable event causes these, whether a fall, a machine incident, or a lifting injury, and the connection to employment is rarely disputed in them.

• Repetitive stress and occupational conditions. These develop across months or years rather than in one moment, and a carrier commonly argues the condition arose outside the workplace entirely.

• Denied and disputed claims. A carrier may refuse to authorize treatment or deny that the injury is work-related at all, and either dispute is resolved through a formal petition filed with the Division.

• Disputed medical treatment. Where the authorized physician declines to provide care a worker’s own doctor recommends, that determination can be challenged.

• Permanent disability claims. Benefits become available where an injury leaves lasting effects, and that assessment is made after treatment concludes rather than while it continues.

• Construction accidents. Job site injuries frequently support both a benefits claim and a separate claim against a contractor or equipment owner who is not the employer.

• Truck accidents. An employee injured while driving for work may have benefits available and a claim against whoever caused the collision.

• Brain injuries. Head trauma sustained at work presents a particular problem, because a physician assessing physical capacity frequently under-records the cognitive effects. 

• Spine injuries. Back and neck injuries account for a substantial share of lost-time claims, and they are where the pre-existing condition argument is raised most often.

• Catastrophic injuries. Amputations, severe burns, and paralysis cost far more over a lifetime than the benefits system will ever approach. 

• Wrongful death. Dependency benefits are available to the family of a worker killed on the job, and a third-party claim may exist alongside them.

Why Choose the Law Offices of David A. DiBrigida as My Workers Compensation Lawyer in New Jersey?

When the Carrier Selects the Doctor

An injured worker in this state does not choose the treating physician. The carrier does, and that physician decides what treatment is authorized, when a worker has recovered as far as they are going to, and what permanent effect to record. A worker who disagrees has recourse, but only if someone raises it. Left alone, the carrier’s physician’s assessment becomes the assessment. David A. DiBrigida takes this firm’s work injury files, drawing on over thirty years of experience. Knowing when a treatment determination should be challenged is what a personal injury lawyer in New Jersey contributes to a benefits claim.

The second question is whether anyone other than the employer bears responsibility. That claim is not restricted the way a benefits claim is, and what maximizing a compensation settlement involves is a different exercise from valuing a negligence claim against a contractor. Should suit become necessary, the file passes to trial counsel.

What This Practice Has Obtained

The recoveries below came from injury claims rather than from benefit awards, and they show the scale of what a third-party claim can reach. All form part of the millions of dollars recovered at this firm:

• Organ damage sustained by a man in a multi-vehicle highway crash: $625,000

• A hit-and-run victim of 30 with injuries to head and shoulder: $500,000

• A young woman’s fractured arm, concluded within four months: $100,000

• Arthroscopic repair to a knee struck against a dashboard: $90,000

Assessing a work injury claim costs nothing, and our fee arises only where the matter produces a result.

What Is Important to Understand About a Workers Compensation Case?

Damages, Liability, and Compensation for Workers Compensation Cases

Fault plays no part in a benefits claim. An employee injured in the course of employment is entitled to benefits whether the accident was the employer’s doing, a co-worker’s, or the employee’s own. Comparative negligence under N.J.S.A. 2A:15-5.1, in the State Library database, governs any third-party claim brought alongside the benefits claim rather than the benefits claim itself.

The two proceed differently, and what each provides is worth separating:

• Authorized medical treatment. Paid by the carrier without deductible or co-payment, though limited to care the carrier’s physician authorizes.

• Temporary wage replacement. A portion of wages during the period a worker cannot perform their job, which by design does not replace the whole.

• Permanent disability benefits. Available where the injury leaves lasting effects, and assessed once treatment has concluded.

• Dependency benefits. Payable to the family where a worker dies as a result of the employment.

• Everything a third-party claim adds. Pain, permanent limitation, the remainder of lost wages, and future earning capacity, none of which the benefits system provides.

What Are Important Aspects of a Workers Compensation Case?

Four things determine how these matters resolve, and the first is the one workers most often get wrong.

• Prompt notice to the employer. Delay in reporting is the argument a carrier raises most frequently, and it is entirely avoidable.

• The authorized physician’s records. They control the claim. Where they omit symptoms a worker reported, that omission becomes the record unless it is addressed.

• Identification of a third party. Whether anyone other than the employer contributed is the single question with the largest effect on total recovery. Several ways injuries occur at work involve equipment or premises controlled by someone else entirely.

• The lien on any third-party recovery. A carrier that paid benefits will assert a claim against the negligence settlement, and that figure has to be negotiated rather than accepted.

What Is the Workers Compensation Case Timeline?

A benefits claim opens quickly and a third-party claim runs on a much longer schedule, which means the two conclude at different times.

• Report and authorization. The injury is reported, the carrier assigns a physician, and treatment begins.

• Treatment and temporary benefits. Wage replacement continues while a worker is unable to perform the job.

• Maximum medical improvement. Treatment concludes and the extent of any permanent effect is assessed.

• Petition where disputed. Contested treatment, compensability, or permanency is resolved through a formal claim petition.

• Third-party resolution. Any negligence claim proceeds on its own schedule, and settlement requires the compensation lien to be addressed before funds are distributed.

What Should You Bring to Your Workers Compensation Consultation?

Whatever the carrier has sent you is the most useful material, and there is no need to gather anything further.

• Correspondence from the insurance carrier or the third-party administrator

• The name of the authorized physician and any treatment notes you were given

• The report of injury filed with your employer, if you received a copy

• A description of the equipment or conditions involved in the accident

Expect the conversation to cover who else was present and what equipment was involved, since a third-party claim frequently exists where nobody has thought to look for one. Filing periods differ between the two claims, and the two-year period under N.J.S.A. 2A:14-2 governs the negligence side. The Division publishes claim information for workers tracking a pending matter.

Reach Out to the Law Offices of David A. DiBrigida to Schedule a Consultation

A worker receiving benefits and being treated by the carrier’s physician can easily assume the matter is proceeding as it should. What we can tell you is whether the treatment being authorized matches the injury, and whether a claim exists against anyone besides your employer. We do not charge for that, and payment reaches us only through a recovery. Contact us to arrange that conversation at whatever point suits you.