Workers’ Compensation is supposed to be available for any worker who would be willing to work but can’t because of their injury. If you were to retire or otherwise leave the workforce for reasons other than your disability, you could potentially lose your benefits, including if you go to jail.
If you are incarcerated after a conviction, then your benefits stop as long as you are incarcerated. This means that if you are convicted of a crime but do not go to jail, you can still get benefits. It also means you can get benefits after being charged but before your conviction. When you get out, we can seek to have your benefits reinstated if you are still disabled.
For a free case review, call Cardamone Law’s Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers at (267) 651-7945 today.
Do I Lose Workers’ Comp if I’m Charged with a Crime?
Being charged with a crime is not enough to end your benefits. In the criminal justice process, there are a few stages to take into account, and they occur in this order:
- Charges and arrest
- Bail hearings
- Trial or a guilty plea
- Conviction
- Sentencing
When you are initially charged and arrested, you are still considered innocent. You may go through a bail hearing and be sent to jail while you await your trial, but you have not been convicted of anything at that point yet and are still considered innocent. Then you go through trial or plea negotiations, which might end in a guilty plea or a guilty verdict.
Only at that point does § 306(a.1) of the Workers’ Comp Act kick in to stop your benefits, and only if you are sentenced to a jail or prison term. Under the text of the Act, benefits cut off if you have been incarcerated (i.e., put in jail) after a conviction (which includes guilty pleas).
Do I Lose Workers’ Comp After Conviction?
As mentioned, conviction is the point when benefits might be turned off – but only if you go to jail. The statute only addresses “incarceration,” meaning that you are physically in a jail or prison and unable to work because of that.
The important thing here is that the law cuts off benefits after a court finds them guilty or they plead guilty, and only if they go to jail.
Do I Lose My Benefits While on Probation?
Many criminal cases end with no jail time. For example, you might be convicted of a summary offense like disorderly conduct, which could result in just a fine. Some more serious misdemeanors might result in probation, but no jail time.
The provision that cuts off benefits only kicks in with incarceration after a conviction, meaning that probation would not end your benefits.
Does Pretrial Detention End My Workers’ Comp Benefits? What if I Can’t Get Bail?
Sometimes people go to jail before being convicted of anything. Usually, for the courts to put you in jail ahead of trial, they need to show that you are a flight risk or a danger to the community. Alternatively, the issue might be that you just can’t afford bail.
In either case, you have not been convicted of anything yet, and so § 306(a.1) isn’t triggered. That only applies, as we said, to incarceration after a conviction, not pretrial jail time.
This issue was decided by the Commonwealth Court in 2009 in Rogele, Inc. v. WCAB (Mattson).
Sadler v. WCAB (Coca-Cola) – How Sentences to Time-Served Are Handled
A complicated issue arose from a 2021 case before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court called Sadler v. WCAB (Coca-Cola), where the worker was on benefits, then charged with a crime and put in jail ahead of trial. He ended up staying in jail for 525 days (almost a year and a half) because he could not post bail, but he eventually pled guilty to the crime.
What makes this case interesting is that the court sentenced him to time served, meaning that instead of being incarcerated again as punishment for the crime, they applied the 525 days he already spent in pretrial detention as his sentence.
The court pointed out two important things to clarify the rules on Workers’ Comp benefits during incarceration:
- They affirmed the preexisting rule that the 525 days in jail were before conviction, so he does not lose benefits for those days.
- After conviction, he did not spend time in jail (it was all before conviction), so he does not lose benefits for those days either.
All in all, this means that a sentence to time served should not cut off your benefits at all under the wording of the Act. This is all a bit of an uncommon situation, but this ruling helps clarify the rules for everyone.
What Should I Do if I am Facing Potential Jail Time While on Workers’ Compensation Benefits in Pennsylvania?
When you are in this situation, you need a criminal defense lawyer and a Workers’ Compensation lawyer. Our Workers’ Comp attorneys can help defend against additional petitions or requests from your employer to interfere with your benefits too early, while your criminal defense lawyer works on keeping you out of jail in the first place.
Many employers will try to shut down benefits before your conviction under some of these arguments:
- Claims that you are missing required medical treatments
- Claims that you are missing required medical examinations
- Claims that you are not answering communications or responding to requests.
If you are in jail, you would not be able to do some of these things, but our lawyers can fight these issues and try to keep your benefits flowing to you and your family while you fight the charges against you and try to keep your freedom.
Ultimately, if you win your criminal case, you should not lose your benefits, and our attorneys can file any petitions needed to see your benefits restored or continued. If you do lose your case, when you get out, we can seek to have benefits reinstated if you are still disabled.
Call Our Workers’ Compensation Specialists in Pennsylvania Today
For help with your Workers’ Comp case, call our Wyndmoor, PA Workers’ Compensation attorneys at Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945.
