Injured at work? The benefits don't pay themselves.

Focused Workers' Compensation Pages

• Occupational Injuries -- NJ Workers' Compensation Act under N.J.S.A. 34:15-1 et seq.; accidental injury vs. occupational disease; aggravation of pre-existing conditions; intentional-wrong exception under Laidlow v. Hariton Machinery Co.; third-party claims under N.J.S.A. 34:15-40; public-safety presumptive claims (cardiovascular, PTSD, firefighter cancer).
• Denied & Disputed Claims -- claim denials, stopped temporary checks, delayed treatment authorization, motions for medical and temporary benefits, emergent medical-care motions, delay penalties, and appeals.
• Benefits & Disability Payments -- temporary disability, permanent partial and total disability, dependency benefits, average weekly wage, annual rate caps, Second Injury Fund, and SSDI offset coordination.

New Jersey workers' compensation, directly

New Jersey's Workers' Compensation Act (N.J.S.A. 34:15-1 et seq.1) is a no-fault system. If you were injured arising out of and in the course of employment, you may be entitled to medical treatment and wage-replacement benefits without proving the employer did anything wrong. The trade-off is that the Act is generally your exclusive remedy against the employer: most workplace-injury disputes against the employer are handled in the Division of Workers' Compensation rather than as Superior Court tort suits.

At Simon Law Group, our workers' compensation attorneys represent injured workers throughout New Jersey, from the initial report of injury through final settlement or trial before the Division of Workers' Compensation. Our goal is straightforward: to pursue every benefit the statute provides and a permanency award that reflects what the injury actually cost you.

What workers' comp covers

Coverage is broader than people think. The injury does not need to be a single dramatic accident. Repetitive trauma, cumulative wear-and-tear, and occupational diseases are all compensable so long as work was a material contributing cause. Common covered conditions include:

• Traumatic injuries: fractures, lacerations, burns, and crush injuries from machinery, falls, motor-vehicle work, or being struck on a job site
• Back and spinal injuries: herniated discs, fractures, and chronic lumbar or cervical pain from lifting, bending, or repetitive physical labor
• Repetitive stress injuries: carpal tunnel syndrome, tendonitis, rotator-cuff tears, and cubital tunnel from sustained repetitive motion
• Occupational diseases: conditions caused by workplace exposure -- asbestosis, mesothelioma, silicosis, chemical-exposure illnesses -- covered underN.J.S.A. 34:15-311
• Hearing loss: noise-induced hearing loss from prolonged exposure to industrial, construction, or transportation environments
• Psychological injuries: work-related mental-health conditions, with the caveat that NJ courts generally require objective evidence tying the condition to identifiable work events

The claim process, step by step

• Report the injury -- in writing, fast.N.J.S.A. 34:15-171gives you up to ninety days to notify the employer, but late notice is one of the most common excuses carriers use to deny claims. Tell a supervisor the day it happens; follow up with an email so there is a date-stamped record.
• Seek authorized medical treatment. The employer's carrier directs care. Go where they send you, keep every appointment, and follow restrictions. If the authorized provider is delaying surgery, refusing physical therapy, or returning you to full duty when you can barely move, that is what motion practice is for.
• Get the temporary checks started. If you are out more than seven days, temporary disability is generally seventy percent of your pre-injury average weekly wage underN.J.S.A. 34:15-12(a)2. Late or missing checks are not normal -- they are a problem worth a phone call from a lawyer.
• File a Claim Petition if anything stalls. Denial, dispute over body parts, refusal to authorize treatment, or stopped temporaries all warrant a formal petition in the Division of Workers' Compensation. The statute of limitations underN.J.S.A. 34:15-513is two years from the date of accident. For occupational disease, the period runs two years from when you knew or should have known the condition was work-related, underN.J.S.A. 34:15-344.
• See the case through to permanency. Once you reach maximum medical improvement, a permanency evaluation tends to determine the percentage of lasting disability and the dollar value of the award. For many workers this is the largest single payment a comp case will produce, and the negotiation generally benefits from counsel who appears regularly in the Division and knows how the assigned Judge of Compensation tends to weigh permanency proofs in similar cases.

The three benefit categories

Medical benefits

The carrier pays all reasonable and necessary treatment related to the work injury: doctor visits, surgery, hospitalization, physical therapy, prescriptions, durable medical equipment. There is no dollar cap for causally related authorized care. If symptoms return years later and medical proof ties them to the original work injury, reopening medical treatment may be available.

Temporary disability benefits

When the injury keeps you out of work more than seven days, temporary disability generally pays seventy percent of your pre-injury average weekly wage underN.J.S.A. 34:15-12(a)1, subject to a statutory maximum that adjusts annually. The first seven days are a waiting period underN.J.S.A. 34:15-142; if your disability extends beyond seven days, those first seven days are then paid retroactively. Temporaries run until you reach maximum medical improvement or return to work -- whichever happens first.

Permanent disability benefits

Once maximum medical improvement is reached, a permanency evaluation determines the extent of any lasting disability. Permanent partial disability falls underN.J.S.A. 34:15-12(c)3: New Jersey uses a scheduled-loss table for specific body parts (arms, legs, hands, feet, eyes, ears) and an unscheduled-loss formula for the back, neck, head, and internal organs. Permanent totaldisability -- awarded when the combined effect of work-related injuries renders you unable to obtain employment in a competitive labor market -- falls underN.J.S.A. 34:15-12(b)4.

Section 20 settlement or an extent-of-disability order?

A settlement number does not tell you what happens after payment. New Jersey uses two materially different formal resolutions. A disputed-claim settlement under N.J.S.A. 34:15-201 ends the petition and surrenders the compensation rights covered by that claim. An extent-of-disability settlement underN.J.S.A. 34:15-222 fixes the present permanent disability and preserves the statutory review route. The signed order, the injuries it covers, and any addendum control. Compare those papers rather than relying on shorthand such as “lump sum.”

Section 20: final surrender of the disputed claim

Section 20 applies after a claim or dependency petition has been filed, when the worker is represented by a New Jersey attorney and a genuine dispute concerns jurisdiction, liability, causal relationship, or dependency. Before approving the agreement, the Judge of Compensation considers the worker’s testimony, other witness testimony, and the parties’ stipulations. The judge may approve it only after finding it fair and just under all the circumstances. The Division’s Section 20 order form3 records the contested ground, the payment, allowances and reimbursements, and the judge’s fair-and-just finding.

Once approved, a Section 20 settlement has the effect of dismissing the petition with prejudice. It is a complete surrender of compensation and other benefits arising from the released claim. That consequence reaches later requests for additional permanent disability, temporary disability, or medical benefits for the released injury. It is a compromise of contested issues, not an extent-of-disability award. The ordinary worsening review process does not restore rights surrendered through Section 20.

Extent-of-disability order: present permanency and a limited review route

Section 22 addresses a different situation. When the parties agree that the only issue is the extent of disability, the judge considers the worker’s sworn testimony, any other witness testimony, and the parties’ stipulations. The order must find the settlement fair and just and state the present disability. The Division’s Judgment and Order Approving Settlement form4 separately identifies temporary benefits, permanent benefits, credits, medical bills, fees, and reimbursements.

An extent-of-disability order may be reviewed under N.J.S.A. 34:15-275 on an application filed within two years after the injured worker last received a payment when incapacity has increased. That is a limited opportunity to present new proof, not a guarantee of additional compensation or treatment. The date of the last payment, the injuries recognized in the order, and medical evidence connecting the increased incapacity to the compensable injury all matter.

Questions to answer before consenting

• What is actually disputed? Identify whether the dispute concerns jurisdiction, liability, causal relationship, or dependency, or whether compensability is resolved and only the extent of permanent disability remains. That distinction points to the type of order and the rights that survive it.
• What proof supports the proposed resolution? Review the medical reports, benefit history, testimony, and stipulated facts that the judge will be asked to consider. Conflicting medical percentages do not by themselves promise a particular award.
• Which injuries and benefits remain open? For each pleaded injury, identify what the order does with medical care, temporary disability, and permanent disability. Ask for the last-payment date in writing if the proposal preserves a Section 27 review route.
• Did another program or insurer pay for the same injury or period? New Jersey’s non-duplication rule,N.J.A.C. 12:235-3.186, can require reimbursement of State or private-plan temporary disability benefits from a workers’ compensation award, order, or settlement, including lump-sum or permanent-disability benefits. N.J.S.A. 34:15-15.17 also permits an order reimbursing an insurer, organization, or person that paid qualifying medical expenses on the worker’s behalf. Obtain the claimed payoff and identify any disputed amount before calculating the net payment.
• What will be deducted, and who pays each item? Under N.J.S.A. 34:15-648, the Judge of Compensation must approve a claimant attorney’s fee before payment. The statute’s 25% figure is a ceiling for a reasonable fee in the circumstances described by the law. That ceiling was raised from 20% to 25% by the 2024 amendment to the statute (P.L. 2024, c. 55, enacting S2822/A3986). It is not an automatic fee, and it does not mean the worker always pays 25%. The state order forms allocate amounts payable by the worker and the respondent. Review the proposed fee, costs, reimbursements, credits, and expected net payment before consenting.

Retaliation is illegal -- and it is its own lawsuit

Under N.J.S.A. 34:15-39.11, an employer may not discharge or discriminate against an employee because the employee filed, threatened to file, or testified in a workers' compensation matter. If you are fired, demoted, written up out of nowhere, denied promotions, or pushed out under the cover of a "restructuring" after filing a claim, you have a separate civil cause of action for reinstatement, back pay, restoration of benefits, and in some cases punitive damages. Document timing carefully -- the dates of the injury report, the claim filing, and any adverse employment action are what build the retaliation case.

Third-party claims: the second case running alongside

The exclusivity rule shields your employer but does not bar suits against negligent third parties. If you were hit by another driver while making a work delivery, injured by defective machinery built by an outside manufacturer, or hurt on premises owned by a separate company, you may have a personal injury lawsuit running parallel to the comp case. Third-party claims pay categories the comp system never does -- pain and suffering, full lost wages, loss of life's pleasures. The workers' compensation carrier may assert a lien on a third-party recovery underN.J.S.A. 34:15-402, and the coordination of those two cases -- what gets paid first, how the lien is reduced, how the settlements are structured -- directly determines how much money you actually keep.

Related practice areas

• Personal Injury -- third-party negligence claims that run alongside comp
• Social Security Disability (SSDI) -- when an injury keeps you out of work long-term
• Civil Litigation -- employer retaliation and wrongful-termination suits
• Appeals -- challenging denied claims and unfavorable Division decisions

From our blog

• It Is Illegal for Employers to Retaliate Against Workers' Comp Claims
• NJ Workers' Compensation Rate Changes
• Are Commute Injuries Covered by Workers' Comp?