WHEN SHOULD YOUR INCOME BENEFITS START

If you've been injured at work, your Louisiana Workers' Compensation indemnity benefits should be paid on the following schedule:

• The first payment of Temporary Total Disability Benefits (TTD) or Permanent Total Disability Benefits (PTD) is due on the fourteenth day after the employer or their insurance company found out about your injury. Thereafter, you should be paid benefits weekly until you are able to return to some type of work.
    
• To receive Supplemental Earnings Benefits, you generally must file a Form 1020 with your employer or their insurance company each month to report any income you've earned or other benefits you've received. Supplemental Earnings Benefits payments are due fourteen days after your employer or their insurer receives the form. We suggest that you send the form by certified mail or fax (with regular mail follow up) so you have confirmation of the date they received the form.
    
• Any residual Permanent Partial Disability benefits should be paid in a lump-sum thirty days after the employer or insurer receives a medical report informing them of the permanent impairment.

If your benefits are late, you may file a claim with the Louisiana Office of Workers' Compensation and request penalties in addition to your regular benefits. You may also ask the Louisiana Workers Compensation Court to require your employer or their insurance company pay part or all of your attorneys fees so that you do not have to pay those fees directly. The Louisiana Workers' Compensation Act provides that your employer or their insurer will not owe the penalty and fees "if the claim is reasonably controverted or if such nonpayment results from conditions over which the employer or insurer had no control."

A separate part of the law controls the situation if you're already receiving weekly or monthly benefits and your employer or their Workers compensation insurance company stops paying your benefits without a good reason. If that happens, you may ask the Court to reinstate your benefits, compel the employer or insurer to pay you a penalty and also to pay your attorneys fees.

 The law states:

Any employer or insurer who at any time discontinues payment of claims due and arising under this Chapter, when such discontinuance is found to be arbitrary, capricious, or without probable cause, shall be subject to the payment of a penalty not to exceed eight thousand dollars and a reasonable attorney fee for the prosecution and collection of such claims.

This is a frequently litigated area of the law and the Louisiana Workers' Compensation Courts are often asked to decide whether an insurance company's decision to terminate a claimant's benefits was "arbitrary, capricious and without probable cause."

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