Legal Research

Every state has an agency that administrates workers? compensation cases. There is no national database of records. Workers' compensation benefits are paid to people who have suffered an injury during the performance of their jobs. Workers? compensation records will contain the date of the incident, employer, insurance company, type of injury, body part injured, time lost, and if there is a job-related disability. Obviously, these records are useful in background investigations and fraud cases. However, most records are considered to be confidential or at least certain portions of each case file are. They?re usually only released to parties involved in a case or by subpoena. Generally what is considered public record by some states is limited to determining if a subject has filed a claim, and decision, award or order in a disputed case.

One reason records are confidential is the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). This act prohibits state workers? compensation boards from disclosing information as part of the pre-employment screening process. Per the ADA, a review of workers? compensation histories may only be conducted after a conditional job offer has been made and when medical information is reviewed. However, the ability to conduct this type of review is still subject to individual state statutes, which vary widely and can be stricter than the ADA. For example, Nevada disallows a record search for post-hire purposes.

States that release at least a portion of workers' compensation files to the public are California, Florida, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin. In most other states, a signed release is necessary or even a subpoena.

Several state offer online access to some information. In Florida, access to the claims history database is provided online at www.fldfs.com/wc/databases.html, all personal information has been redacted. Case status for Illinois cases at shown at www.iwcc.il.gov. In Nebraska, workers? comp record requests may be made at https://www.nebraska.gov/WC/records.phtml. Unless specifically requested, responses will be limited to first and subsequent reports filed within the last five (5) years.

© excerpt from The Public Record Research TIPS Book