If your workers’ comp claim is accepted by the Ohio Bureau of Workers Compensation (BWC), you may be entitled to some, if not all of the benefits Ohio law provides to workers injured on the job. In some cases, injured workers can receive weekly payments while they are off of work recovering from an injury. In more severe cases, injured workers may not be able to return to work in any capacity ever again. These workers are also entitled to weekly benefits. If you settle your workers compensation claim, you have the option of doing so through a lump sum award, which is the preference of some injured Ohio workers.
Workers Comp Settlement
There are good reasons to pursue a settlement of your workers compensation claim, but you should be aware that in doing so, you do give up some of your rights.
If you settle, you are giving up any right to further benefits through the BWC for the injuries which are part of the claim that is settled, in exchange for an agreed-upon (“settled”) amount of money. This means that if the healing process does not go as expected, or you don’t heal as well as anticipated, you probably have no recourse for increased benefits for this injury. Generally, once you have reached a settlement of a workers compensation claim, in signing the agreement, you forfeit all rights and all other future benefits relating to this injury.
You are not, however, giving up “any and all” claims to future workers’ comp benefits. You are only accepting a settlement referring to this specific injury — and the specific dates when you were employed — that your accepted claim covers. If you become injured on another occasion, even at the same job, that would become a new workers’ comp case. The benefits for that case would be treated entirely differently, as a fresh and unrelated injury, and would not be affected by the previous settlement.
In most cases, workers will not pursue a settlement until they have reached MMI (maximum medical improvement). This is when the medical professionals working on your case think that your condition will not improve any further with treatment, and has stabilized at a level that will not ever reach a full return to the condition prior to the injury.
Structured Settlement
If you are considering a settlement of your workplace injury claim, you may be offered a structured settlement. This means that the BWC will pay out your settlement over time in installments, rather than all at once.
You may want to pursue this option if you are worried that you (or the person receiving the settlement) might spend the lump sum too quickly. A structured settlement will ensure that the payments come over time, and will continue to pay off your expenses in the future.
If you will be receiving Social Security benefits at the same time as your workers’ comp benefits, this is another reason for considering a structured settlement. The workers’ comp payouts may have a negative impact on your Social Security disability payments or on your tax liability. You may want to consult with a lawyer versed in both workplace injury law and Social Security benefits to discuss the ramifications of receiving benefits from multiple sources at the same time.
Workers Compensation in Ohio
Unlike most states, Ohio has a monopolistic BWC which insures most employers in the state. Only a small number of Ohio-based employers pay out their own workers’ comp claims and are self-insured.
If you would like to discuss filing Ohio’s Form C-240 and trying to reach a settlement, or if you think you’ve been offered a settlement that might not be in your best interest, we encourage you to talk with us here at CTBC.