Workers’ Compensation Resource Center

New York Workers’ Compensation Guide

Worker experiencing back pain due to lifting or repetitive motion injuryMost guides to workers’ compensation are written as if the claim were an event. File the form, get the check, go back to work, done. That is not how a New York claim behaves. This resource center is a New York workers’ compensation guide built the way claims actually run: in stages, over years, with the file staying open long after the injury stops being news.

Everything below is organized by where you are right now. If your benefits just stopped, you do not need to read about filing. Skip to Stage 2.

Questions about your own claim? Call Lewis & Lewis, P.C. at (716) 854-2100. Free consultation, answered 24/7.

Schedule a Free Consultation

How long does a workers’ compensation claim stay open in New York?

Headshot for Attorney Emily F. Janicz, President of Lewis & Lewis Law Firm

Attorney Emily Janicz

Longer than almost anyone expects. Medical treatment for an established work injury can be covered for life, which means the claim can be reopened, argued, and re-decided decades after the accident.

“People don’t always think, going into a workers’ compensation claim, that your claim continues for your entire life. So I have clients that got hurt in the ’80s and we’re still representing them. We’ve been representing them the whole time because our firm has been around for 80 years.” Emily F. Janicz, partner

Read that as good news, because it mostly is. A lifetime medical benefit is one of the strongest things New York gives an injured worker. It is also the reason the choice of who represents you is a longer-term decision than choosing a lawyer for a car accident. Emily’s point is blunt about it: a claimant who hires a solo practitioner in year one can be unrepresented by year fifteen.

What are the four stages of a New York workers’ comp claim?

Filing, disruption, adjudication, and return to work. Almost every claim passes through all four, though rarely in a straight line, and many claims cycle back through the middle two more than once.

Injured worker wearing a neck brace meeting with a professional, representing a workers’ compensation consultation in Niagara FallsStage 1: Starting your claim

The first month decides more than the first year does. You have 30 days to give your employer written notice, two years to file the claim itself, and one chance to answer the claim form questions without having to explain the answer later.

This is also the stage where people rule themselves out by mistake. A bad back you have had for years does not disqualify you. Being called an independent contractor does not settle whether you are one. A condition that built up slowly over 30 years of the same motion is its own category of claim.

Start here: Starting a Workers’ Comp Claim in New York

Stage 2: When something goes wrong

Benefits stop. A letter arrives saying the claim is controverted. You are sent to an examination by a doctor you did not choose. This is when most people call a lawyer for the first time, and it is the stage with the most moving parts.

The reasons for the benefits lapse are usually administrative rather than dramatic, which is exactly why they blindside people. A treating provider missed a report deadline. The wrong kind of provider signed the paperwork. A form documenting your job search never got filed.

Go here: When Something Goes Wrong With Your Workers’ Comp Claim

Close-up of an office-worker's hands suffering from repetitive motion strainStage 3: The claims process and hearings

Disputes in New York are decided by a Workers’ Compensation Law Judge at the Workers’ Compensation Board, not in a courtroom. Hearings are short, held on the Board’s virtual platform, and dense with shorthand.

They are also frequent. A comp claim is not one trial. Claimants with long-running files can sit through twenty or thirty hearings across the life of a case.

Go here: The NY Workers’ Comp Claims Process and Hearings

Stage 4: Returning to work

Light duty, reduced earnings, re-injury, and the paperwork that proves you are still looking for work you can physically do. Going back too early is one of the most common ways a recovering claimant ends up worse off than before.

A dedicated stage page is in development. In the meantime, start with returning to work after a workers’ compensation injury and the dangers of being re-injured after returning to work too soon.

What does workers’ compensation actually pay for in New York?

More than most claimants are told. The insurance carrier is not obligated to hand you a list of everything you can claim, and in practice it does not.

Benefit What it covers
Wage replacement Two-thirds of your average weekly wage multiplied by your percentage of disability, subject to a state maximum tied to your date of injury
Medical care Treatment for the established injury, with no copays, deductibles, or bills to you
Travel reimbursement Mileage and transportation costs for getting to treatment, claimed on Board form C-257
Schedule loss of use A separate award for permanent loss of function in an arm, leg, hand, foot, eye, or ear
Permanent disability Ongoing benefits when the injury permanently reduces your earning capacity
Death benefits Weekly benefits to surviving family and funeral expenses

The state maximum changes every July 1. For injuries occurring between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027, the maximum weekly benefit set by the Board is $1,281.50, with a minimum of $384.45. The rate is locked to your date of injury and does not rise later, which is one reason the date on your claim form matters as much as it does.

Emily on what clients find out in a first meeting:

“They didn’t know they could get mileage for going to their doctors. They didn’t know they were getting paid incorrectly. They didn’t know that they could see whatever doctor they want to see.”

Not sure what you are entitled to? A free case review costs you nothing. Call (716) 854-2100.

Schedule a Free Consultation

Why do so many claims fall apart when nothing obviously went wrong?

Construction worker on job site feels the effects of repetitive motion injuryBecause the carrier’s early cooperation gets mistaken for the carrier being on your side. Checks arrive, treatment gets approved, nobody argues, and the claimant reasonably concludes the system is working.

“The insurance company often treats people well at the outset of the case, so they get lulled into this false sense that things are going to be okay, and they’re not being told what they actually need to have to prove their case.” Emily F. Janicz, partner

What is missing is the evidence. New York requires medical proof of the right kind, signed by the right kind of provider, updated at the right intervals. A carrier that pays voluntarily for eight months has not built your case for you. It took eight months in which nobody built it.

What makes Lewis & Lewis different from the firm in the ad?

Two things, and they are both structural rather than promotional. The firm has been representing injured workers across Western New York for over 80 years, and nobody in the workers’ compensation department has ever worked for an insurance carrier.

“None of us can imagine working on the other side, representing insurance companies, cutting off people’s benefits.” Emily F. Janicz, partner

The third is geography. Statewide advertisers buy Western New York search results without keeping a Western New York office, and claimants find out after signing that they cannot meet the attorney whose name is on the ad. Lewis & Lewis, P.C. keeps six offices across the region: Depew, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Batavia, Olean, and Jamestown. The firm’s own three words for itself are Trusted. Local. Experienced.

The full Lewis & Lewis workers’ compensation library

Every workers’ compensation article the firm has published, grouped by the stage it belongs to.

Stage 1: Filing, eligibility, and coverage

Stage 2: Denials, cut-offs, and disputes

Stage 3: The Board, hearings, and decisions

Stage 4: Going back to the job

Settlements and closing the claim

When you have more than a comp claim

Common questions about using this resource center

Where do I start if I have not filed anything yet?

Stage 1, and then call. Two deadlines are already running against you from the day of the accident: 30 days for written notice to your employer, and two years to file the claim. Neither one is a formality, and the first one is short enough to miss while you are still in a sling.

Does any of this apply if my employer says they do not carry workers’ comp insurance?

It still applies. Nearly all New York employers are required to carry coverage, and the state maintains an uninsured employers fund for injured workers whose employer did not. An employer’s claim that there is no coverage is a reason to talk to a lawyer sooner, not a reason to give up on the claim.

My claim is from years ago. Is there any point reading this now?

Yes, and older claims are a significant part of what the firm handles. A closed claim can be reopened when the condition worsens, medical treatment can be argued about long after the wage benefits end, and a carrier can move to reduce benefits on a file that has been quiet for years.

Can I use this to handle my own claim without a lawyer?

You can represent yourself, and the Board is set up to allow it. What you cannot do is match the carrier, which will have an attorney at every contested hearing. Reading this will make you a better-informed claimant. It will not put a lawyer on your side of the room.

Get your questions answered by someone who has been doing this a long time

You do not have to know which stage you are in to call. Describe what happened and what you have received in the mail, and we will tell you where you actually stand.

Lewis & Lewis, P.C. has been protecting injured workers’ rights across Western New York for over 80 years, with offices in Depew, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Batavia, Olean, and Jamestown.

Call (716) 854-2100 for a free consultation, or contact the firm online.

Schedule a Free Consultation

Get Help Today

 

Fill out the form below, and one of our personal injury attorneys will contact you within 24 hours.

"*" indicates required fields

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Satisfied Client Stories

 

”I liked Lewis & Lewis from the beginning when they helped me sort through all the paperwork-related to my injury. They really helped me get organized. But what really impressed me was when my Lewis & Lewis personal injury lawyer obtained thousands of dollars in workers’ compensation benefits that I didn’t even know I was entitled to. My attorney worked hard to get me paid.

Fred T.Kenmore, NY - Steam Fitter
SEE TESTIMONIALS