Multiple Injury Trust Fund (MITF) & Second Injury Cases

OKLAHOMA MULTIPLE INJURY TRUST FUND & SECOND INJURY CASES

If an injured Oklahoma City or Tulsa area worker, having sustained, filed and concluded a viable Oklahoma Workers Compensation case against an Oklahoma employer, which claim has been pursued to either a permanent disability award or settlement, and such worker has, previous to his or her most recent workers comp case, a previous serious & permanent disability meeting certain statutory requirements, and otherwise being a ‘physically impaired person’ at law, said injured worker may qualify and otherwise be entitled to additional workmans compensation benefits from the Multiple Injury Trust Fund (or ‘MITF’).  In order to qualify for such benefits from the Multiple Injury Trust Fund the injured employee &/or his or her attorneys or lawyers must provide proper proof to the Oklahoma City or Tulsa Work Comp Court that he or she is permanently and totally disabled (or ‘PTD’) and that this complete inability to work is as a result of the combined effects of the residuals of the worker’s most recent Oklahoma workmans comp injury and the previous injury or disability that constituted the injured worker a qualifying ‘physically impaired person’.

Current Oklahoma City & Tulsa Workmens Compensation Court rules provide that if such combined disabilities constitute permanent total disability, as defined in the Oklahoma Workmens Comp Act, then the injured employee shall receive full compensation as provided by law for the permanent partial disability or PPD resulting directly and specifically from the subsequent workers’ compensation injury.  In addition, the hurt worker shall receive full compensation for permanent total disability if the combination of injuries renders the employee permanently and totally disabled, as defined in the Oklahoma Workers Comp statute, all of which shall be computed upon the schedule and provisions of the Oklahoma Work Comp Act.  The employer shall be liable only for the degree of percentage of disability which would have resulted from the subsequent workmans compensation injury if there had been no preexisting impairment.  In permanent total disability cases the remainder of the compensation shall be paid out of the Multiple Injury Trust fund and may be paid in periodic cash payments.  One should note, however, that the compensation rate for permanent total disability awards from the Multiple Injury Trust Fund shall be the compensation rate for permanent partial disability paid by the employer in the last combinable workmans comp injury.  Finally–permanent total disability awards from the Multiple Injury Trust Fund shall  be payable for a period of fiteen (15) years or until the employee reaches sixty-five (65) years of age, whichever period is the longer.

NOTE: the term “physically impaired person” has been defined by the Tulsa & Oklahoma City Workmens Compensation Court as: any person who as a result of accident, disease, birth, military action, or any other cause, has suffered the loss of the sight of one eye, the loss by amputation of the whole or a part of a member of his body, or the loss of the use or partial loss of the use of a member such as is obvious and apparent from observation or examination by an ordinary layman, that is, a person who is not skilled in the medical profession, or any previous adjudications of disability adjudged and determined by the Workmens Comp Court or any disability resulting from separately adjudicated injuries and adjudicated occupational diseases even though arising at the same time.

CASH SETTLEMENT OF YOUR PTD MULTIPLE INJURY TRUST FUND CASE

The Oklahoma Multiple Injury Trust Fund has full authority to compromise or agree to a settlement or settlements of an Oklahoma City or Tulsa area injured employee’s MITF or special indemnity fund claim for less than the indicated amount of permanent total disability (PTD).  However, any order entered by either the Oklahoma City or Tulsa Workers’ Compensation Court awarding a cash settlement amount less or other than permanent total disability shall be paid only in a periodic installment check beginning on the date of the award.  To be sure–any compromise or cash settlement or settlements of a MITF case after a permanent total order (PTD) has been entered shall be paid only in periodic installment checks.

Although it is the policy of the Tulsa & Oklahoma City Workers Comp Courts to encourage insurance companies, injured workers, attorneys & lawyers to use alternative dispute resolution procedures such as mediation and settlement conferences for the early disposition of pending litigation–claims against the Mulitiple Injury Trust Fund are specifically excluded from the Oklahoma Work Comp Court’s comprehensive mediation program.

The determination of disability shall be the responsibility of the Workers’ Compensation Court.  Any claim submitted by an employee for compensation for permanent disability must be supported by competent medical testimony which shall be supported by objective medical findings and which shall include an evaluation by the treating physician or an independent medical examiner if there is no evaluation by the treating physician, stating his or her opinion of the employee’s percentage of permanent impairment and whether or not the impairment is job-related and caused by the accidental injury or occupational disease.  Medical opinions addressing compensability and permanent impairment must be stated within a reasonable degree of medical certainty.

There shall be a rebuttable presumption in favor of the treating physician’s opinions on the issue of temporary disability, permanent disability, causation, apportionment, rehabilitation or necessity of medical treatment.  Any determination of the existence or extent of physical impairment shall be supported by objective medical evidence.  Any party may object to the opinion of the treating physician by giving written notice to all other parties and to the Court.  Upon receipt of such notice, if the parties fail to agree on the selection of an independent medical examiner, the court shall randomly select an independent medical examiner who shall be afforded a reasonable opportunity to examine the employee together with all medical records invovled and any other medical data or evidence that the independent medical examiner may consider to be relevant.  The independent medical examiner shall issue a verified written report on a form provided by the Administrator to the Court stating his or her finding of the percentage of permanent impairment of the employee and whether or not the impairment is job-related and caused by the accidental injury or occupational disease.  An independent medical examiner in a case involving permanent disa bility shall not be a treating physician of the employee and shall not have treated the employee with respect to the injury for which the claim is being made or the benefits are being paid.  Any impairment rating determined by the Independent Medical Examiner must be based upon objective medical evidence.