New Jersey First Responders Receive Broader Workers’ Compensation Coverage Under New Bill
In January 2024, New Jersey passed a law expanding workers’ compensation coverage for emergency first responders and their families. The bill makes it easier for families to seek death benefits when first responders suffer fatal cardiac events or strokes immediately after a shift ends.
The bill is intended to make it easier for these families to receive benefits when a loved one dies from a work-related medical condition – even if that condition doesn’t occur during work hours.
Expansions Under the New Workers’ Compensation Law
Before New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy signed the new law, emergency responders’ families automatically received workers’ compensation if their loved one died of a heart attack or stroke – but only if the death occurred while their loved one was on the clock.
If their loved one made it home or finished their shift before seeking medical care, families had to fight for workers’ compensation. Families faced the legal burden to prove their loved one’s death was job-related. These cases could drag on for years, depriving the family of needed benefits.
The new law defines the scope of workers’ compensation coverage to include a period of 24 hours after each shift for emergency responders. The law also establishes a presumption that a medical event that occurs during this 24-hour period directly results from a patient’s work as a first responder.
The new law, which took effect in January 2024, addressed all pending cases involving death benefits for an emergency responder. It is expected to make it easier for families of emergency responders to receive these benefits.
Who Is Covered By The New Rules
The new law covers emergency first responders like firefighters, police officers, and emergency medical technicians (EMTs). It covers both professional first responders and volunteer first responders.
The law presumes that a stroke or cardiac arrest occurring within 24 hours of the end of an emergency first responder’s shift is an on-the-job medical event for workers’ compensation purposes. Families no longer have to prove the event was work-related. Instead, it is up to a workers’ compensation insurer or employer to prove that the event was not related to the first responder’s work.
The new law received support from the Professional Fire Fighters Association of New Jersey (PFANJ), which played an active role in drafting and lobbying for the bill. The bill passed the New Jersey House with unanimous approval.
Death Benefits and Workers’ Compensation in New Jersey
In New Jersey, workers’ compensation provides medical and other benefits for workers who experience job-related injuries and illnesses. Injured employees may receive payment of their medical bills and disability benefits tailored to the type of injuries they suffer and the amount of time they must miss work due to their injuries.
If an employee dies as a result of their work, the employee’s family may also seek death benefits under workers’ compensation coverage. A worker’s dependents can receive 70 percent of their loved one’s weekly wage but not more than the maximum amount prescribed each year by the state Commissioner of Labor.
New Jersey workers’ compensation law presumes that a surviving spouse and children are a worker’s dependents. The spouse and children must live in the deceased worker’s household to receive this presumption. If they don’t live together, the spouse and children must prove they are dependents.
Other family members can also bring a claim to prove they are dependents. These include parents, grandparents, grandchildren, or siblings of the deceased person.
Some workers leave behind multiple dependents. For instance, a worker may have several children or have a spouse and child. In these cases, a hearing may be needed to determine how death benefits should be divided among the dependents. Children of a deceased worker are considered “dependents” until they turn 18. If the child is a full-time student, they may remain a dependent until age 23. Disabled children may receive benefits for longer.
Workers’ compensation must also pay up to $3,500 for funeral expenses. These funds are paid to the party that pays for the funeral – typically a family member or the estate.
New Jersey’s new law makes it easier for families of first responders to receive death benefits. Yet questions about who is a dependent and how benefits should be divided may arise. An experienced New Jersey workers’ compensation attorney can help you and your family answer these questions and receive needed benefits.