Seattle Workmans’ Comp Lawyers Enforce Your Employee Rights

Washington Workers’ Compensation Law and L&I Benefits You Deserve

Seattle Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Explaining the System

Much has been made in the public in regards to the Washington workers’ compensation system. Despite all of the controversy involved with it, the system remains one of the strongest in the United States as compared to other jurisdictions. Therefore, if you have been injured while at work, you should not hesitate to contact a Seattle workers’ compensation lawyer if you want to be sure that your documentation is in order or if you’re having trouble obtaining approval for your Washington State L&I benefits and workmans compensation benefits.

Below you’ll find information regarding the reasons that the Washington workers’ compensation system was put into place, the competitive nature of the general premium costs of the workers’ compensation system in Washington, a selection of facts and figures that define how and why Washington’s workers’ compensation system is so beneficial to everyone involved, statistics regarding the healing timeframes of Washington workers and finally how you should proceed if you or someone you love needs the help of a Washington workers’ compensation lawyer.

Washington Workers’ Compensation Laws and L&I – A Brief History

Traditionally, workers used to be able to sue their employers with a Washington personal injury lawsuit if they were injured on the job. However, given the delays, cost uncertainty and general lack of an ability to return to work after such lawsuits were filed, a new set of laws was enacted that were designed to deal with the reality that workers will suffer injuries while on the job and to provide for clear and tangible benefits to workers and employers in terms of benefits and cost controls.

Basically, the Washington workers’ compensation laws came into existence in the form of Labor and Industries benefits as a result of a bargain of interests between employers and workers. The bargain was essentially that workers would give up their Constitutional rights to sue an employer for a workplace injury or an occupational disease that was contracted on the job for the right to certainty in regards to obtaining benefits.

Employers were freed from the burden of defending lawsuits but would be required to pay premiums into an insurance fund that would be clearly defined in regards to cost and would be used to fund these benefits. Overall, it was seen as a relatively fair bargain that would also promote the workers’ return to the job once he or she was healed.

Premium Costs for WA Workmans Compensation Insurance

Over time, the Washington Department of Labor and Industry (L&I) has helped to build a workers’ compensation system that proved to be extremely cost-effective. These costs have actually decreased in recent years, and according to L&I this decrease was in the amount of 24% of older rates when viewed as a percentage of payroll. This has led to a savings of $1.8 billion in rate reductions and dividends paid from the insurance fund between 1996 and 2002 alone.

L&I is currently proposing a 7.6% increase in workers’ compensation premiums to help alleviate the shortfall between the rate reductions mentioned above and the rising costs of both healthcare and overall wages in Washington. This proposed increase comes after a two-year holiday from rate increases and dividends in the amount of $337 million during that time.

Washington Workers’ Compensation versus Other States

When compared to other states, Washington’s workers’ compensation system proves itself to be highly efficient and effective. Employers in Washington pay the 8^th lowest premiums in the country while the system provides the 3^rd highest amount of benefits to injured workers. In addition, L&I only exhausts 18% of the total fund for administrative costs versus an average of 68% of premium revenues in the rest of the United States.

Basically, Washington’s workers’ compensation system removes profit from the equation, as the law requires that the system provides the lowest possible costs while supplying the highest while remaining solvent. Part of this positive bottom line is that Washington is the only state in which workers pay a portion of the premiums, which next year will count 28% towards the total cost of the L&I system.

Finally, the reason that the periodic rate increases proposed by the State Fund are public knowledge is because the benefits system is based on hours worked by workers instead of being figured as a portion of payroll as it is in most other states. When the figure is arrived at via payroll amounts, the premiums will naturally increase when workers’ pay rises over time.

Why You Should Not Hesitate to Pursue WA Workers’ Compensation Benefits

Finally, the workers in Washington are extremely efficient. Statistics show that 95% of workers who miss time are out of work for 40 days or less. This helps to keep the L&I system’s costs down. Therefore, if you have been injured in the workplace, you need to make sure that you’re taking advantage of benefits that you helped to fund. If you need help obtaining benefits, contact the Seattle workmans comp lawyers at Phillips Law Firm as soon as possible to schedule an initial consultation.