Three important aspects of Arizona’s workers’ compensation system are the benefits received, the hearings conducted and the appeal process. Let’s take a look at each with the help of our expert, Charles Surrano, an Arizona attorney and member of the Advocate Law Group network with 30 years experience in bad faith litigation, including disability and Arizona workers’ compensation bad faith claims against insurance companies.

Benefits

According to Surrano, benefits in Arizona are fairly straight forward, “If you’re injured on a job, you should be paid for necessary medical treatment. If you’re out of work for a period of time, you’ll be paid a percentage of your salary up to a statutory limit. You may be paid a lump sum for permanent disabilities you sustain as a work related injury – basically, any physical or financial injury within the statutory limitations of the workers’ compensation law that you might sustain as a result of an on the job injury.”

Hearings

Because workers’ compensation is a state system, each state has its own administrative agency that oversees the program. In Arizona, that agency is the Industrial Commission. Surrano explained how the hearing process works, “The Industrial Commission is essentially the judicial microcosm where the actual workers’ compensation claims are adjudicated. It’s an administrative tribunal. There are administrative law judges who will hear disputes between claimants and workers’ compensation insurers and resolve those disputes in a way similar to what would be done at the Superior Court, except there is no jury and the process is much less formal. So, it’s an expedited, or at least it’s intended to be an expedited, process.”

Appeals

If you don’t agree with the Commission’s findings, Surrano says that you can file an appeal and it actually happens fairly often. He continued, “It does happen fairly often; however, the rules governing the appeal from the decision of the Industrial Commission are different from the rules that would apply to a verdict because you’re applying administrative law. The standard on review for an appeal is much tighter. The court will essentially be looking to see if there’s anything on the record that could support the administrative law judges decision. You could also petition to the Supreme Court; however, those petitions are very rarely granted.”

If you’ve been denied valid workers’ compensation benefits, contact an Arizona workers compensation attorney whose practice focuses in this area of law to confidentially review your case.