Lawyer for Pennsylvania Act 534 Claims

Act 534/632 can be used to help employees at state correctional institutions get compensation for injuries sustained while doing their duties if the injury was caused by an inmate’s actions. These Acts can also help other employees who work for firefighting forces and other first responders or public safety employees get compensation when they are injured during certain duties.

Under these rules, you may be able to get full compensation for your lost wages while you are out of work on a temporary basis. However, for coverage to apply, your injury needs to meet certain requirements about how it happened and what you were doing when it happened. These benefits come on top of Workers’ Comp benefits, which you might qualify for even if you do not qualify under Act 534.

For help with your case, call our lawyers for Pennsylvania Act 534 claims at Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945.

Who is Covered Under Act 534?

Under Pennsylvania Act 534, all the workers of state hospitals, youth development centers, departments of human services, state centers, Pennsylvania penal and correctional institutions, and mental hospitals are covered in case of an injury at work. Act 632 is a separate law that covers other types of workers, and the two Acts are often grouped together into the Pennsylvania Heart and Lung Act.

The Pennsylvania Heart and Lung Act covers enforcement officers employed by the state police department, correctional centers, law enforcement agencies, investigation firms, judiciary, and more. Under this law, a wide range of state/local workers, from police to park rangers to campus police to corrections officers are all covered. If you are not sure whether your specific job title or scop of your duties qualifies you under this Act, we can examine your case and your job duties to see whether you should qualify under this Act or might benefit from other programs, such as Workers’ Compensation.

What Injuries Does Act 534 Cover?

Act 534, and the Heart and Lung Act more generally, cover temporary injuries for qualifying personnel. Under these laws, first responders and qualifying workers can receive compensation for heart and lung injuries sustained during their duties, helping cover the effects of things like smoke inhalation injuries for firefighters. Workers in correctional facilities can often get coverage more specifically for any incapacity that results from something an inmate did to them while performing their duties. This more broadly covers things like broken arms, concussions, or any injuries sustained in an attack.

Keep in mind that these laws provide coverage for temporary incapacity. If your injury is totally disabling and will keep you totally disabled for a long time, it might not qualify you for benefits under Act 534. However, there are other benefits that can cover you for these long-term injuries, and our Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Specialists can analyze your case to determine which benefits you are entitled to and file for all of them.

What Are the Criteria to Receive Benefits?

You may have a Pennsylvania Work Comp claim but not an Act 534 or Heart and Lung Act claim. For a Heart and Lung claim to be available, the injury must occur during the performance of one’s “duties.” Under Act 534, the injury must be caused by an inmate.

These requirements are stricter than the generalized “course of employment” requirement for Workers’ Compensation. Under the Workers’ Comp Act, nearly any injury you sustain while working or at work could result in coverage, versus Act 534, Act 632, and the Heart and Lung Act each require that what you were doing was part of your “duties.”

For example, sitting at your desk booting up your computer would not be part of your “duties,” but patrolling a prison would be part of a guard’s duties, and fighting a fire would be part of a firefighter’s duties.

Tying these benefits to “duties” is important because this is an area of the law that traditionally does not allow first responders and security personnel to file lawsuits or seek damages. The “fireman’s rule” is a traditional tort rule that says that professionals in these jobs “assume the risk” when they enter a burning building or confront a criminal, thus blocking any lawsuits for those injuries. Act 534 and these other acts make sure that first responders and government workers with dangerous jobs do get the coverage they deserve while doing their duties to serve the public.

If your injuries and the conditions under which they occurred do not qualify you for benefits under Act 534, rest assured that you might still be able to claim Workers’ Compensation instead because of its broader scope.

How Much Can You Get from Act 534 Benefits?

An employee or injured worker eligible for Act 534 or Heart and Lung compensation is entitled to full, base salary. The employer – i.e., the government – pays that salary. Workers’ Compensation is usually available to injured workers, including government workers, to cover 2/3 of their lost wages while they cannot work. Filing for both means that you would get 100% of your salary paid under Act 534 or similar acts, plus 2/3 of your wages paid by Workers’ Comp – but you cannot keep 167% of your salary.

Workers’ Comp benefits that may be payable are either paid directly to the employer by the insurer or must be turned back over by the injured worker to the employer – i.e., the government – so that they can recoup those costs instead of double-paying the injured worker. This leaves the worker with the rest of their salary in their pocket.

This is a bit confusing and roundabout, but it means that – at the end of the day – you would get 2/3 of your normal wages paid by Workers’ Comp and Act 534 would get you the other remaining 1/3 of your wages paid by your employer.

Can You Receive Benefits from Act 534 (Heart and Lung Benefits) at the Same Time as Workers’ Comp?

Yes, you can receive your Heart and Lung or Act 534 benefits and Pennsylvania Work Comp benefits at the same time. The Work Comp carrier will pay the state what is owed in Work Comp (2/3 wage loss) while the injured worker receives full salary.

This belt and suspenders approach ensures that there is money there for an injured first responder/officer/guard to get the benefits they need, and to make sure they can get their full salary paid in times of funding shortages and other potential blocks to getting government money paid appropriately.

Filing for Workers’ Compensation along with your Act 534 claim is incredibly important, and Workers’ Comp is also more expansive and can cover work injuries that do not qualify for Act 534 coverage.

What to Do if Your Act 534 Claim is Denied

If you are covered under the Heart and Lung Act or Act 534, you are entitled to a “due process” hearing if your benefits are denied or prior to any termination of benefits. Our lawyers for Pennsylvania Act 534 claims can seek to have the denial overturned during this hearing, getting you the benefits you should be entitled to.

If for some reason your injury does not actually qualify you for Act 534 benefits, we can still file for Workers’ Comp benefits for you. This could occur if, for example, the injury is determined to have occurred outside of your “duties” but still within the “scope” of your work or if the injury cannot be proven to have been caused by an inmate when it comes to injuries for prison guards. This denial could also occur if your injury is permanent and will lead to more than “temporary incapacity.”

If this happens, we can still seek to get you benefits through Workers’ Comp, which will cover 2/3 of your lost earnings instead of 100% but will still pay for 100% of the medical care required to treat your injury. These medical benefits should be the same, ultimately, as what would have been covered under Act 534, though the processes and procedures involved in getting them – as well as the source of payment – might be a bit different.

Call Our Lawyers for Act 534 Claims in Pennsylvania Right Away

If you were hurt and qualify for Act 534 benefits, call Cardamone Law’s lawyers for Act 534 claims in Pennsylvania today for a free consultation by dialing (267) 651-7945.