Don’t make a mistake and take the wrong action in your Ohio BWC claim. You should discuss your claim with a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney.

Under current Ohio Law, employees who voluntarily resign employment, even though the employee has an active and ongoing workers’ compensation claim, are ineligible to receive temporary total disability compensation even though, after the voluntary abandonment, the injured worker underwent surgery for the allowed conditions in the Ohio Workers’ Compensation claim. State ex rel. Lackey v. Indus. Comm., 129 Ohio St.3d 119, 2011-Ohio-3089.

Based on Ohio Law, before an injured worker decides to terminate employment, either by retiring or quitting, it is critical to discuss this decision with a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney. Without a thorough review of your situation with a Certified Specialist you could run into serious trouble in obtaining certain money benefits (Temporary Total Disability-TTD, Wage Loss-WL, Permanent Total Disability-PTD) in your OhioBWC claim.

The Ohio Supreme Court stated that temporary total disability must arise from a condition that was caused by the industrial injury and, to be payable, where the injured worker has not voluntarily left or abandoned the work force.

Additionally, Ohio Law holds that termination of an employee’s employment for cause (violation of work rule, etc.)  is also considered a voluntary abandonment of employment, precluding the payment of TTD.

Thus, the only way an injured worker can obtain TTD benefits once a voluntary abandonment of employment has been found to have taken place is to find other employment and re-enter the job market. Once re-entry has taken place, should the injured worker then become unable to perform job duties as a direct result of the allowed BWC claim conditions and is prevented from performing his/her job duties, at the new place of employment, due to the originally allowed conditions, then the injured worker would again be eligible to seek TTD benefits (or, in the appropriate circumstances, Permanent Total Disability – PTD benfits) in the previously allowed workers’ comp claim.

However, should a new injury or an aggravation to the prior condition take place at the new place of employment, this situation must be discussed with a Board Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney. There are many nuances to a BWC claim. There are time limits and taking the wrong course of action can severely impact on any Ohio BWC claim.

Call Mike Gruhin, The Comp Specialist, to discuss any aspect of your Ohio Workers’ Compensation Claim. Act now, Call now!

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Many people wonder if the Permanent Total Disability Compensation they receive will ever go up over time. The answer is maybe. . . .  For more information, read on.For the most part, compensation rates do not increase in an OhioBWC claim. As an example, check out the compensation rate chart for your injury year.

An injured worker is paid TTD at the following rates – for the 1st 12 weeks off work, TTD is paid at 72% of the Full Weekly Wage.  The FWW is computed by taking the gross wages earned the 6 weeks prior to the injury. You should have a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist represent you in your claim to make certain that your rates are accurately calculated. Many times there are errors in the calculations that cost an injured work large sums of unpaid compensation.

An injured worker is paid TTD at the following rates – after the 1st 12 weeks off work and through the remainder of the claim, TTD is paid at 2/3 (66.6667%) of the Average Weekly Wage.   The AWW is computed by taking the gross wages earned during the entire 52 weeks prior to the injury date.

Calculation of compensation rates includes all money earned from multiple employers during that time.  Additionally, if there are periods where no income was earned, there may be a way to get the BWC to ignore that period from the computation of the AWW.  You should have a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist represent you in your claim to make certain that your rates are accurately calculated. Many times there are errors in the calculations that cost an injured work large sums of unpaid compensation.

It is important to get a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney in your corner. Setting the wages correctly and knowing the law regarding exclusion of unemployment due to illness, lay-off, etc. needs a specialist to protect your legal rights to correct compensation rates.

Temporary Total Disability Compensation is “locked” into the year of the injury. So, if you go off work due to allowed conditions in your BWC claim, you will get paid based on the amount of money you made the year before the injury. This is based on the Average Weekly Wage set in your claim.

The same is true regarding Wage Loss Compensation and Permanent Partial Disability.

The only compensation that can be raised is Permanent Total Disability, but only under one condition. Your compensation payment rate must be lower than the rate set as the Disabled Workers’ Relief Fund (DWRF). This year, the DWRF rate is set at $332.86. Thus, if your AWW would make your rate of compensation lower than the DWRF rate, you would be “bumped up” to the DWRF rate.

DWRF usually increase every year by approximately $5-10.00 per year.  Only in the recent past was the rate not increaesed (due to the economy and zero inflation rate).

In the event of an Ohio work injury, or job accident, a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney should be contacted to advise an injured worker on all the benefits available in such an industrial accident.  There are time limits, so protect yourself and call now.

Contact Mike Gruhin, Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney. Find out your rights and protect yourself and your family!

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In Ohio, if you’re injured on the job and your claim is allowed, you may be entitled to receive temporary total disability compensation (TTD). This is the money you receive when you are unable to work. But, be aware of this fact so you don’t “punish” yourself and lose valuable compensation.  Read on.In order to receive TTD payments, you MUST be off work for seven days. So, not counting the day of the injury and not counting the day you return, you must be off for more than seven days.  The OhioBWC counts Saturdays and Sundays in the seven day count.

So here are the examples:

You lose 8 days of work (again not counting the day of the injury or the day of the return) and you return to work on day 9. You will be paid TTD for 1 day.

You lose 9 days of work (again not counting the day of the injury or the day of the return) and you return to work on day 10. You will be paid TTD for 2 days.

BUT, if You lose 14 days of work (again not counting the day of the injury or the day of the return) and you return to work on day 15. You will be paid TTD for 14 days.

Thus, the system seems to encourage people to be off work for a full 14 days (not counting the day of the injury or the day of return to work) so that the injured worker gets paid for ALL 14 days.

Strange but true. For more information on Ohio Workers’ Compensation you should discuss your Ohio work injury with a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney.  Mike Gruhin is a Certified Specialist.

There are time limits. The system is too complex for an injured worker to “go it alone”.  Remember, the Ohio BWC has lawyers to protect its interests and your employer has lawyers to protect its interests. You better get an attorney to represent your interests, and that attorney should be a Board Certified Specialist.

Contact Mike Gruhin to discuss your claim – no charge, no obligation consultation.

© 2011, Gruhin & Gruhin Attorney's. All rights reserved.

If your temporary total disability compensation (TTD) is over or about to end with a finding of maximum medical improvement (MMI) by a BWC doctor, then it may be time to think about enrolling in OhioBWC Vocational Rehabilitation (VocRehab) which can start a different type of compensation payment coming your way.

Discuss this with a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney.  Don’t lose benefits and don’t walk about from your legal rights and benefits.

There are many benefits available through an Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Claim that the Ohio BWC will not tell you about. Be smart, hire a Board Certified Specialist.

Mike Gruhin is a Board Certified Specialist. He works on a Contingency Fee basis – he doesn’t get paid unless he wins for you!  You have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Call now there are time limits!

© 2011, Gruhin & Gruhin Attorney's. All rights reserved.

Under Ohio Law, an injured worker is entitled to statutory Permanent Total Disability when there is a loss of 2 hands, 2 arms, 2 legs, 2 eyes, or a combination of these injuries.

If you have been granted Statutory Permanent Total Disability, that compensation cannot be terminated. Additionally, even if you have been granted Statutory Permanent Total Disability, you are still able to work and earn compensation. This is different than “regular” Permanent Total Disability, under which the injured worker is not permitted to work.

The definition of work can be performing actions that are construed as work whether payment for the action is or is not made.

With any question related to Ohio Workers’ Compensation Claims or the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (OhioBWC), you should contact a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney.

Mike Gruhin is a Board Certified Specialist. You have questions, Mike has the anwers.

© 2011, Gruhin & Gruhin Attorney's. All rights reserved.

Under Ohio Workers’ Compensation Laws, you are entitled to seek Permanent Total Disability (PTD)  even if you are receiving Social Security Disability. And, if you are successful in obtaining PTD, then you can receive both payments at the same time.

Depending on your age, there may be an offset against your Ohio PTD payments. You need to discuss this with a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney.  For more information, call or email Mike Gruhin, Board Certified OhioBWC Certified Specialist Attorney.

© 2011, Gruhin & Gruhin Attorney's. All rights reserved.

Under Ohio Workers’ Compensation Laws, you are entitled to seek Permanent Total Disability (PTD)  even if you are receiving Ohio Public Employee Disability Retirement Benefits. And, if you are successful in obtaining PTD, then you can receive both payments at the same time.

The good news is that should you be successful in obtaining OhioBWC PTD, there is no offset against your OPERS Disability Retirement payments.

You need to discuss this with a Board Certified Ohio Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney.  For more information, call or email Mike Gruhin, Board Certified OhioBWC Certified Specialist Attorney.

© 2011, Gruhin & Gruhin Attorney's. All rights reserved.

The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation may no longer relying on the Mercy Guidelines for Chiropractors. Instead, the OhioBWC is now relying on the ODG (Official Disability Guidelines) in the rule. Although the BWC rule currently does not list any specific guidelines, its policy rule indicates that reliance is now on the ODG. Although it may not specifically state that Mercy Guidelines cannot be used, it will be good practice to cite ODG in any request for treatment authorization.

© 2011, Gruhin & Gruhin Attorney's. All rights reserved.

When an injured worker is receiving Temporary Total Disability (TTD) or Permanent Total Disability (PTD), work performed (remunerative employment for which payment is received) is prohibited by law.

If the BWC finds out that an injured worker, receiving TTD, is working, the Fraud Unit will investigate and pursue prosecution.  Ohio BWC fraud is a felony.

Interestingly, based on the following article posted on the Ohio BWC website, it seems that an injured worker on PTD, who seeks a lump sum settlement may become the subject of a BWC Fraud Unit investigation.  

FROM THE BWC WEBSITE:
Richland County Man Sentenced For Workers’ Compensation Fraud

Roger Roseberry found guilty of filing a false claim

COLUMBUS – A Mansfield man was sentenced yesterday in the Richland County Common Pleas Court after pleading guilty to fraud following an investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation (BWC) Special Investigations Department (SID). A judge ordered Roger Roseberry to pay at least $500 per month to BWC and will face incarceration for six years if he fails to pay. He was also sentenced to five years of community control. Roseberry was collecting Permanent Disability from the BWC for an injury that included total loss of use of his right arm and both legs due to Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, also known as RSD. A BWC Attorney referred the settlement to the SID for review after Roseberry submitted an application for a lump sum settlement in the amount of $617,000. The SID’s investigation revealed Roseberry did have use of both his legs as well as his right arm.

“Injured worker fraud draws resources from workers who have legitimately been injured on the job, and unfairly raises premiums for employers who are working to maintain safe workplaces,” said SID Director Tom Wersell. “Careful monitoring of claims helps us identify and prosecute those who abuse the system.”

Special Agents conducted several days of surveillance and observed Roseberry operating a motor vehicle, driving long distances, walking, opening and closing doors, holding items and writing. The videos were later shown to Roseberry’s treating physicians who indicated the video contradicted the conditions allowed in his workers’ compensation claim. Upon completion of the investigation, the settlement was rejected by the BWC and Roseberry was referred for prosecution. Roseberry admitted to fraud related to collecting Permanent Total Disability benefits and his request for the lump sum settlement.

On March 30, 2009, Roger Roseberry pleaded guilty in Richland County Common Pleas Court to one count of workers’ compensation fraud, a third degree felony and one count of theft, a fourth degree felony. As part of the plea agreement, Roseberry has agreed to repay $23,536.92 in restitution and $7,000 in investigative costs.

© 2009, Gruhin & Gruhin Attorney's. All rights reserved.

You are found to be at MMI. Your temporary total disability ends. Now what?

It depends on the specific facts of your claim, but in general the following actions can be taken:

1) see if your doctor feels that your claim can be amended to include a new diagnostic condition, either physical or emotional. If you obtain a new claim condition/allowance, you will have new and changed circumstances. You would be entitled to seek temporary total disability compensation from the date you were last paid.

2) At any time during your claim, while you are on Temporary Total Disability, you can seek entrance into Vocational Rehabilitation. In VocRehab, you are eligible to receive Living Maintenance compensation, which can lead to Living Maintenance Wage Loss for a period of 200 weeks for pre 8-25-06 claims and for a period of 125 weeks for post 8-25-06 workers’ compensation claims.

3) Go back to work and wait the statutory time to apply for your injury money. If you are returned to work with restrictions, you may be entitled to seek working wage loss. Again, depending on the actual date of your work injury, you are entitled to either 200 weeks of wage loss or 125 weeks of wage loss (see item 2 above for claim date requirements).

It is best if you discuss this finding of MMI with your attorney. If you don’t have an attorney, you should get one ASAP. Look for a Certified Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Specialist.

Feel free to call Mike Gruhin at Gruhin & Gruhin. He would be happy to discuss your claim with you.

© 2009, Gruhin & Gruhin Attorney's. All rights reserved.