The Commission's 2017-18 fiscal year report (7-1-17 through 6-30-18) reveals that 63,399 work comp claims were filed in the state during that period. Of these claims, the employees who were injured filed a Form 18 to start their claim in 17,519 cases. The remaining 54,837 cases were opened at the Commission when the employer or insurance carrier filed the Form 19.
The following outcomes occurred:
Hearings held: 2,078
Appeals to the Full Commission: 599
Cases mediated: 9,677
Percent of cases settled at mediation: 72.9%
Cases settled on a final "clincher" agreement: 12,248
Fraud cases reported: 5,525 (The majority of these involved fraud on the Employer side of the case)
Number of cases in which the insurance company did not comply with the law requiring it to promptly admit or deny liability after Form 18 was filed: 4,008 (out of 17,519, or 22.87% of the time.)
These statistics tell us that many more cases are settled than litigated. In addition, the insurance companies failed to follow the rules from the very beginning in nearly 23% of the cases filed by injured workers. No wonder so many injured workers need to hire lawyers to help them with their claims!
Bob Bollinger