The South Carolina Legislature recently passed a series of laws that have changed much of the workers' comp law and may affect how you are compensated for your on-the-job injuries. This is an overview of some, but not all, of the changes that have been made to the workers' comp laws. For the complete text of the law, see Title 42 of the S.C. Code.
(1) Two new scheduled members (i.e. injured body parts) have been added to the list of body parts eligible for compensation: the shoulder and the hip.
(2) Another important change to the law involves back injuries. If your back is injured and your doctor gives you a rating of 50% or more loss of use to your back, there is now a rebuttable presumption of total and permanent disability. This means that you and your attorney must prove your total and permanent disability to the commission. Before the changes to the law were made, this type of injury and rating would have resulted in automatic total and permanent disability, and no additional proof would have been needed.
(3) If your case is a medically-complex case, medical evidence is required to establish that the injury happened during the course of your employment. This type of evidence was not required before the changes to the law were made.
(4) If your were injured on the job and have an occupational disease or a repetitive trauma injury, the new law requires that you meet a higher standard of proof, which means that it will be harder for you and your attorney to prove your injuries were work-related. The new law requires that you and your attorney obtain a professional to give expert medical testimony to establish that your injury is work-related. This change in the law makes an attorney more of a necessity in workers' comp cases because it is now harder to win a claim, and you may need to find a proper medical expert to testify in your case. (5) Truck drivers who are classified as independent contractors are no longer protected under the workers' compensation law because they are no longer considered employees.
