Wyoming Workers Compensation

One of the biggest accomplishments of the 2009 General Session of the Wyoming legislature was passage of the Wyoming workers compensation reform bill, HB0054,making numerous changes to a system that was rife with injustice for workers injured on the job, particularly with permanent partial or total disability.

The new law includes these changes:

• Increases death and permanent impairment benefits, including benefits for surviving children;
• Provides a minimum and extends the durationof temporary total disability benefit;
• Provides an annual cost of living adjustment to permanent total disability benefits;
• Extends the maximum duration of vocational rehabilitation benefits;
• Extends the period over which death benefits are paid;
• Limits the time for the Worker's Compensation Division to recover overpayments;
• Revises the criteria for, and distribution of, employer premium credits;
• Enables sole proprietor businesses to obtain coverage under the system;
• Requires the state to pay a fair share of the costs of litigation when covered workers recover damages from third parties;
• Requires the Division to reconsider claims if an injured workers failure to meet a proceedural deadline is the fault of the workers attorney;
• Appropriates $150,000.00 to the Office of Administrative Hearings to figure out how to modernize the office and to hire one additional hearing officer.