The Workplace & Safety Insurance Board Benefits
The Workplace & Safety Insurance Board (WSIB) is a government body that is supposed to provide a variety of benefits to injured workers when they are unable to work or are permanently injured from a work related accident or condition. This may include a one time payment for the injury itself known as a Non-Economic Loss (NEL), Loss of Earnings (LOE) benefits, and/or Work Transition(WT) to assist you with your return to work. These benefits may be short term or last until you are 65 years of age.
It sounds simple. Oftentimes it is anything but simple.
As one WSIB former manager said who worked for Mr. Yormak said : “I thought when I worked for the Board it was just a few cases which we screwed up which ‘fell through the cracks. I see now that is simply not true….there are so many decisions which WSIB (WCB at time) makes are wrong and are made on a regular basis.” J. McLeod.
Be careful to make sure you file your objection for EVERY denial WSIB provides to you which means you will likely have to do this multiple times which even lawyers who do not do this work are not aware of. Your WSIB letter will always advise you of this at the end of their correspondence.
You can lose your rights entirely just by waiting too long to file your objection to WSIB. In most cases you have 6 months but in some instances (WT) you only have 30 days.
You should seek a consultation with a qualified representative to take action on your behalf as soon as possible to make sure you are not left without a remedy simply because you are too late.
Relying upon other advisors to assist in this complicated legal maze which may appear to the unqualified to be simple can lead to real prejudice and possible disaster. Your physicians can attempt to assist but often are not aware of the very specific WSIB requirements which must be provided to obtain benefits. Sometimes the otherwise helpful physician may even say the wrong thing and actually hurt your case. It might be said asking your physician to assist in legal WSIB matters may be like asking your accountant to do your surgery.