Here is the deal in New Jersey. Let’s just say that you are injured, or one of your worker’s is injured, and, as a result, you can not comes to terms over what benefits the injured worker is to receive. This can also involve a disagreement between the employee and the insurance company as well. In these types of cases, the employee (worker) can approach the Division of Workers’ Compensation with an Application for an Informal Hearing or file a formal Claim Petition. In either situation, a case will be assigned to a district office that covers cases in the county where the injured worker resides, or if the workers does not live in that state, then the county where the employer is located prevails.
These types of cases may involve compensation of the claim — i.e whether the injury or illness is considered work-related or not. This will include the extent and type of medical treatment that is required plus the payment of temporary disability benefits. When the cases involves a job related death, then the subject of permanent disability benefits comes into play. Now, workers generally are represented by an attorney here, but they can act on their own behalf (pro se). On the employer side, legal defense is usually provided by the insurance carrier since it is their money that is at stake. Now one important note to remember if your are a self-insured corporation is the you (or your third party administrator) are required to obtain legal representation to defend the case on your behalf.