The Ohio Supreme Court has upheld the Ohio Workers’ Compensation Subrogation Statute, which was attacked on constitutional grounds.  The case is Groch v. Gen. Motors Corp., Slip Opinion No. 2008-Ohio-546.

If a worker in Ohio is injured on the job due to the negligence of a third party (i.e. someone other than his/her employer), the worker has both a workers’ compensation claim, and a claim against the person who caused the injury.  If the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation pays benefits to the worker in the form of medical expenses and/or loss of income, the Bureau has a right of subrogation against both the party at fault and the injured worker. 

The bases for the constitutional challenge were fairly complicated and beyond the scope of this post.  Suffice it to say that the statute has been upheld, so the injured worker is strongly advised to retain a lawyer to help navigate the murky waters of this statute.

TJB’s Take:

The current workers’ compensation subrogation statute is actually the General Assembly’s third try at passing an essentially fair statute.  Two prior attempts failed in that the Ohio Supreme Court held them unconstitutional.  The current statute has the exact same flaws that the prior statutes had, but the current court did not recognize this, probably because they genuinely do not understand the new statute–it is fairly convoluted. 

Word to the wise:  Retain a trial lawyer if you find yourself in a position like this. 

Jeff Beausay, Trial Attorney