Termination Issues

When you have a Colorado workers comp claim the issue of job termination may come up. Colorado statute indicates that if there is a termination and it is the claimant's responsibility then his claim for temporary benefits is in trouble. Quitting even if you believe it is justified or you are being harassed is very dangerous. If you are terminated for cause it is also a major problem. So if the boss says to check in or imposes more on you after an injury you had better be on your best behavior. In other words try hard not to give them a ground to fire you. You may feel stressed and unfairly treated but being in a legal fight to keep receiving temporary benefits is not a place to be. Once benefits are stopped it can take a hearing to restart them and if the Judge rules against you then you don't get them unless your condition worsens. None of this is pleasant and it can be financially devastating to some claimants especially when you are months away from closing your case. Plus in some of those cases you also may not obtain unemployment benefits so it can really hurt. I disagree with this law and recall what it was like before the law was passed. Back then if you lost your job for any reason you were still usually disabled and trying to find a new job was difficult so in most cases you could keep receiving temporary benefits. I also disagree with it because in my view many terminations are pretextual, that is they target you to find a way to call the termination your fault. Bottom line: cover yourself! If you feel you are being set up be careful and you may wish to document the situation. Better still get a lawyer if at all possible. One last thing usually termination does not affect your permanent claim for benefits in an admitted case but those benefits can be months away.