Know your rights under Workers’ Compensation Law
Law enforcement is a dangerous occupation. It is inevitable that it often results in injuries to law enforcement officers. The New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Act, N. J. S. A. 34:15-7, et seq., is the means by which employees are compensated when they are injured outside of, and in the course of, their employment. It is designed to provide protection to any officer who is injured on the job or while performing work-related responsibilities. However, many officers misunderstand or misinterpret their rights. Hopefully this article will correct many of the misconceptions that PBA members hold.
Preliminarily, a frequent but erroneous belief is that an employee must demonstrate negligence and / or fault by someone to be entitled to benefits. To the contrary, negligence or fault is typically irrelevant in determining whether the officer should receive benefits. Even if an officer’ s negligence may cause an injury, as long as the injury is not intentionally caused by that employee, most often they will be entitled to the workers’ compensation benefits. The primary focus is whether the injury arises out of employment or in the course of employment, and whether the injury was unintentional.
With regard to the first question – did the injury“ arise out” of the officer’ s employment – the injury must be the result of the employee’ s work effort and / or job duties. Therefore, the question is, but for that specific work effort or job duty, would the injury have occurred? For example, if an officer is hit by a car while performing traffic duty during his regular shift, you must ask whether“ but for” the performance of his job duties, would he even be at that location?
Similarly, in analyzing whether the injury occurred“ in the course of” the officer’ s employment, the question to be asked is whether the employee was actually on the clock and / or on duty at the time the injury occurred. In most instances, the focus is on whether the officer was actually being paid by the employer for that specific period of time.
In this regard, a major source of confusion regarding when entitlement to compensation is triggered is application of what is commonly referred to as the“ Going and Coming Rule.” Many erroneously believe that when employees are traveling to work, or in travel after leaving work, that they are covered by workers’ compensation benefits if they are injured. However, workers’ compensation benefits generally do not extend to travel to and from the work location at the beginning or end of the regular work shift. This exclusion applies even if the officer is traveling in a vehicle provided by the employer.
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10 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ NOVEMBER 2017