DiFruscia Law Offices

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DiFruscia Law Offices

Dedicated, Experienced Workers’ Compensation Attorneys

Our aggressive workers’ compensation attorneys represent clients throughout Boston and the greater Massachusetts and New Hampshire areas. With over 101 combined years of experience, we protect and defend employees’ rights to financial compensation for injuries incurred on the worksite. We want clients to focus on healing their injuries while we handle the formalities. Receive a confidential consultation now.

At DiFruscia Law Offices, we recognize that clients have concerns in relation to job security, financial security, anxiety for the medical outcome of your workplace injury, and the process of filing claims. Being proactive in determining your medical restrictions and ensuring the proper paperwork trail helps solidify the compensation you deserve. We are uncompromising on your workers’ compensation rights; start your claim process here.

Our Firm’s Experience

We regularly help injured workers with a variety of injuries, including:

Have You Been Injured?

If you have been injured on the job, you could be entitled to one or more of the following workers’ compensation benefits:

  • Workers’ compensation insurance payment totaling 60% of your average weekly wage during the 52-week period leading up to your accident
  • Financial compensation if you can return to work but have limitations caused by partial disability
  • Financial compensation if you are unable to return to work completely due to total disability
  • Reimbursement for related medical bills, such as physical therapy or surgery
  • Compensation for scarring and disfigurement

What To Expect

If your workers’ compensation claim has been denied, you may still file a dispute to have your claim reevaluated. Here’s what you should expect during the dispute process:

  1. Conciliation: The filing of paperwork begins the dispute process and sets up an official conference date. During this meeting, an attempt will be made to come to a voluntary agreement between you and the insurer.
  2. Conference: An informal legal proceeding in front of a judge details the case including submission of medical exams, wage statements and affidavits of witnesses.
  3. Hearing: Formal legal proceedings occur with a judge present. This includes cross examination of witnesses, sworn testimony and a final decision if benefits are to be awarded.

We’ve been trusted in the community for over 50 years and are proud to continue fighting for our clients to receive the workers’ compensation settlements they deserve. We believe that everyone deserves the right to seek help.

Frequently Asked Questions On Workers’ Compensation

What is workers’ compensation exactly?

Workers’ compensation is a form of insurance that replaces wage payments and medical benefits for injured workers. Employees who have been injured during the course of their employment can apply for compensation in exchange for relinquishing their right to sue their employer for negligence. An employer-employee relationship must be established to recover workers’ compensation benefits, and the injury must be an “on-the-job” injury, meaning the damage occurred while performing work for the employer. Fault is not a factor for recovery.

How much do injured workers receive from workers’ compensation benefits?

Workers’ compensation benefits replace some of your preinjury wage. Benefits may also include compensation for your medical and vocational rehabilitation charges. In Massachusetts, recovery is usually 60% of your average weekly wage, as determined by your average earnings in a 52-week period prior to the accident (MAGL 152).

New Hampshire, on the other hand, calculates the injured employee’s average weekly wage using the method most favorable to them from the following options (RSA 281-A:15):

  1. Divide the gross earnings of the injured employee during the preceding 26 weeks by that number of weeks; or
  2. Divide the gross earnings of the injured employee during a period exceeding 26 weeks but not exceeding 52 weeks by the appropriate number of weeks; or
  3. If, by reason of the shortness of time during which the employee has been in the employment of the employer or because of the nature or term of the employment, it is inequitable to compute the average weekly wage using the methods above, regard may be had to: the rate of pay designated in the injured employee’s agreement of employment; or the gross earnings of persons in the same grade employed at the same work by the same employer; or by persons of the same grade employed in the same class in the same locality.
  4. Note: When the injured employee is employed at the date of injury by two or more employers, “average weekly wages” shall be computed on the basis of the weekly wages received by the employee from all such employers at the time of the injury.

What are the limits of workers’ compensation?

New Hampshire limits the total weeks that injured employees may collect benefits according to the following guidelines (RSA 281-A:15):

  1. Total Disability: If the injured party is completely disabled and unable to perform work, then there is no limit to collect benefits.
  2. Partial Disability: If the injured party can perform some work but cannot earn as much as they did before the injury, then they may not collect more than 262 weeks of benefits.

Massachusetts limits the total weeks an injured employee may collect workers’ compensation benefits according to the following:

  1. Total Incapacity: The total number of weeks an insurer must pay cannot exceed 156 (Ch. 152 §34).
  2. Partial Incapacity: The total number of weeks an insurer must pay shall not exceed 260 weeks (§35).
  3. Permanent Incapacity: The insurer shall pay the injured employee 60%, plus two-thirds, of their average weekly earnings for a 52-week period prior to the accident (as in §34 and §35).

The weeks to collect for total and partial incapacity combined is about five years. Permanent incapacity means the injured person has no future earning capacity and may collect workers’ compensation benefits until they die.

I was injured on the job and now my boss wants to fire me. Can they do this?

Unfortunately, your boss is not required to hold your job while you are receiving workers’ compensation. Although some injured employees will be able to return to their former job, others may return to their former employer for the same position or be forced to pursue a different opportunity.

Will there be a trial?

Workers’ compensation cases are generally settled outside of court. Although not entitled as a matter of law, settlement without trial is, practically speaking, the typical method of resolution for these cases.

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