Worker's Compensation Retaliation

The New Jersey Worker’s Compensation Law allows employees who experience workplace accidents to receive compensation for their injuries. Unfortunately, however, sometimes employers retaliate against employees because they file or seek to file a claim for worker’s compensation benefits.

Fortunately, the Worker’s Compensation Law makes it unlawful for an employer to fire or otherwise retaliate against an employee because they claimed or attempted to claim worker’s compensation benefits.

At Rabner Baumgart Ben-Asher & Nirenberg, P.C., our attorney represent employees who have been fired, harassed, demoted, or experienced another adverse employment action because they filed or sought to file a worker’s compensation claim. You should not be punished for pursuing your legal right to those benefits.

Employers rarely admit it when they retaliate against an employee because they filed a worker’s compensation claim. However, it is possible to prove those claims with evidence such as:

• The relatively close timing between filing a worker’s compensation claim and the employer firing the employee or taking another adverse employment action against them;
• The employer expressing anger or being upset with the employee because they filed worker’s compensation claim;
• The employer harassing the employee after they filed a worker’s compensation claim;
• The employer providing a justification for firing the employee or taking another adverse action against them that makes little or no sense;
• The company having a history or pattern of mistreating employees who filed worker’s compensation claims; or
• The employer taking steps to makes it difficult or prevents the employee from filing a worker’s compensation claim.

Our New Jersey worker’s compensation retaliation lawyers are trained to identify the evidence that supports your claim to have the best chance to successfully negotiate, litigate or arbitrate your legal claims.

Like with most employment discrimination and retaliation claims, if you win a worker’s compensation retaliation lawsuit you can recover your lost wages, damages for your emotional distress, as well as attorney’s fees. In addition, if the retaliation was especially egregious, and someone from the employer’s upper management was involved, then you also potentially can recover punitive damages.

In New Jersey, the statute of limitations to bring a worker’s compensation retaliation claims is two years. The two year period is counted from the date of the wrongful termination or other adverse employment action. For a harassment claim, the statute of limitations begins from the last day of the pattern of harassment.

Often, a worker’s compensation retaliation claim can go hand-in-hand with a claim of disability discrimination. For example, it might be difficult to distinguish whether the employer is unhappy with an employee because they got hurt at work, or because they have a disability that was caused by a workplace injury.

Similarly, an employee who is injured at work may need to take a medical leave, or another reasonable accommodation for a disability. Mamy employers can get upset when an employee needs to take time off from work, or no longer can perform their job the same way they did before they suffered an injury.

The lawyers at our employment law firm handle a wide variety of discrimination and retaliation claims, including claims based on disability discrimination and failure to accommodate a disability.

If you have experienced worker’s compensation retaliation, we can help. Our attorneys represent employees throughout New Jersey who have employment law issues and claims.

If you would like to contact us to schedule an initial consultation with an employment lawyer then we welcome you to contact us online or call us at (201) 777-2250. We are dedicated to enforcing employee right.

We offer meetings by Zoom, over the telephone, and in person in our office in Bergen County, New Jersey. Our address is 135 Chestnut Ridge Road, Suite 305, Montvale, NJ 07645.

You might be interested in reading the following article written by one of our New Jersey worker’s compensation retaliation lawyers: New Jersey Court Reverses Million Dollar Award in Disability Discrimination Case, Finding Jury Relied on Inadmissible Hearsay.