As the Covid 19 Coronavirus spread in New Jersey, Governor Phil Murphy deemed in Executive Orders certain individuals as essential workers. Those essential workers went beyond public safety workers and included individuals who worked in grocery stores, pharmacies, restaurants, gas stations, delivery personnel, and financial institutions including banks. As previously pointed out in an article on NJAccident.com, the definition of public safety workers did not include grocery store workers, pharmacy workers, restaurant workers, gas station workers, delivery personnel, and financial institutions or bank workers. These workers although deemed “essential workers” were not contained within the definition of “Public safety workers”. The Legislature after several months of negotiations and opposition from insurance carriers recently passed an amendment extending protections currently provided to Public Safety Workers to essential workers. The Governor has not signed the law as of August 8, 2020.
When someone suffers a work accident, their income may be significantly reduced. New Jersey Workers Compensation insurance provides three fundamental benefits, medical treatment, temporary disability benefits, and a permanency award. The medical treatment is limited to authorized (designated) medical professionals except for emergency care and if the employer (or insurance carrier) fails to designate a treating doctor or denies the occurrence of the accident. Temporary benefits are 70% of an injured worker’s Gross Salary but are capped at maximum rates depending on the year of the accident. Permanency benefits are normally only awarded after treatment is completed and a 26 week waiting period and permanency examinations are conducted and a settlement agreement reached or a trial conducted and a judicial decision rendered. So, if the injured worker was making significantly more than the maximum temporary disability rate, there may be a need to file for Bankruptcy protection.
Bankruptcy exists to provide individuals with a fresh start by eliminating debt. The Bankruptcy proceeding is a serious undertaking conducted in Federal Court and under the watchful eye of a Bankruptcy Trustee whose job is to ensure that creditor rights are protected by discovering all assets of the Bankruptcy applicant that could be used to pay creditors. A consultation with an attorney who handles Bankruptcy matters is essential to a smooth bankruptcy proceeding.
A couple weeks ago NJAccident.com published an article urging the New Jersey Supreme Court to overturn a Workers Compensation Judge’s decision and an Appellate Division Three-Judge panel’s decision upholding the denial of temporary disability benefits to Volunteer Firefighter who was injured during a fire call but who was unemployed because she was caring for her ailing father. We are glad to report that the New Jersey Supreme Court reversed the lower court decisions and awarded temporary disability benefits to Volunteer Firefighters Jennifer Kocanowski temporary disability benefits as urged by our article.
Supreme Court Summary
The New Jersey Supreme
Court summarized its decision in the Syllabus of its decision released on
February 19, 2019 as follows:
Jennifer Kocanowski was
a volunteer firefighter for seventeen years and was injured in the course of
her duties. Kocanowski applied for and was denied temporary disability benefits
because she did not have outside employment. In this appeal, the Court
considers whether volunteer firefighters must be employed to be eligible for
temporary disability benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act, N.J.S.A.
34:15-1 to -146.
Kocanowski served fifteen years at the Finderne Fire Department in the Township of Bridgewater. In addition to her volunteer work, Kocanowski usually had outside paid employment, including working as a nanny and home health care aide. Kocanowski took a six-month leave from volunteer firefighting after her father’s death to care for her ill mother and settle her father’s estate. She returned to volunteer firefighting around July 2014, but did not resume outside employment.
In New Jersey, Volunteer Firefighters have a special section outlining their entitlement to Workers Compensation Benefits from the town they serve. The special section for Volunteer Firefighters was enacted by the Legislature to make sure that a volunteer firefighter, who is performing a laudable job receives temporary disability benefits, medical bills paid and permanency benefits if they are injured on the job. Volunteer Firefighters are deemed to be at work during their travel to the firehouse or site of a fire. With some exceptions, a worker isn’t covered under the Workers Compensation Law while commuting to work. It makes good public policy to provide coverage to Volunteer Firefighters because their service saves townships throughout New Jersey a lot of money by eliminating the need for a full time fire service and Volunteer Firefighters also save lives and property a benefit to the communities they serve.
Supreme Court Accepts Appeal
The New Jersey Supreme Court accepted an appeal from a decision by a three judge panel in the Appellate Division which upheld the decision of a Workers Compensation Judge not to award temporary disability benefits to an injured volunteer firefighter. The Workers Compensation Statute provides temporary disability benefits to volunteer firefighters. It even provides temporary disability benefits at the maximum rate allowed for the year of the accident. So why was the temporary disability benefit denied. The Workers Compensation Judge found that the Volunteer Firefighter did not have a “wage loss” because the Volunteer Firefighter, at the time of the accident, was not employed. The Firefighter had stopped working to take care of her ailing father. The Appellate Division agreed with the decision stating that without a “wage loss” there could be no temporary disability benefits.
The New Jersey Legislature passed a law earlier this year which required that rideshare services like Uber provide automobile insurance as follows:
(1) primary automobile liability insurance in the amount of at least $1,500,000 for death, bodily injury, and property damage;
(2) primary automobile insurance for medical payments benefits in an amount of at least $10,000 per person per incident, which shall only apply to and provide coverage for the benefit of the transportation network company driver; and (more…)
