Sometimes people decide to leave their employment in the middle of a workers’ compensation case. Several factors come in to play when someone quits.
Sometimes when you go back to work after a work injury, you may feel like the job and boss are making it extra hard on you. You may feel like quitting. Before you take that step, talk with your attorney. Don’t quit if you do not have another job lined up. However, if you have an even better job lined up, by all means take it. Your workers’ compensation case is not a prison keeping you at your current employment.
If the worker is not written out of work at the time they quit
If the person is not written out of work by a doctor when they quit, the employer does not have to pay temporary total disability payments or any change in pay. The injured worker will continue to receive medical care for injuries related to their work accident, even though they are now with a different employer. Once the worker reached maximum medical improvement, their former employer will have to pay them for any permanent disability they have suffered.
If the worker is written out of work and is receiving temporary total disability payments
The employer must keep paying the temporary total disability payments as long as the worker is written out of work. If the doctor releases the worker back to restricted duty and they are restrictions the employer is willing to meet, then the employer will have an argument to discontinue the temporary total disability payments.
When someone quits in the middle of a workers’ compensation claim, their medical care for the on-the-job injury should go on uninterrupted. Further, the payment for the permanent disability at the end of the case is not affected either. However, there are many factors when determining if an employee will be entitled to temporary total disability payments if they quit their employment in the middle of a workers’ compensation case.
If you have questions about your workers’ compensation claim, please contact Venus Poe today at (864) 963-0310 or click here to fill out an online case evaluation form. We have offices in Greenville, South Carolina and Fountain Inn, South Carolina to better serve you. There is no obligation or charge for our initial consultation to see if we can help you with your workers’ compensation case.
The information you obtain in this article is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice.You should not read this article to propose specific action or address specific circumstances, but only to give you a sense of general principles of law. Application of these general principles to particular circumstances must be done by a lawyer who has spoken with you in confidence, learned all relevant information, and explored various options. Before acting on these general principles, you should hire a lawyer licensed to practice law in the jurisdiction in which you may have a case.