Public Guide
Workers' Compensation Deadlines: General Overview
General information about injury notice, claim filing, occupational disease, benefit, appeal, and limitation periods under state law.
Workers' compensation uses multiple state-specific time periods. Injury notice to an employer, filing a claim with an agency, requesting benefits, challenging a denial, appealing an order, and reopening a claim can each have a different deadline.
The triggering date can depend on a discrete accident, cumulative trauma, occupational disease, last exposure, disability, knowledge, last payment, or another statutory event. Employer knowledge may not substitute for the form of notice required by state law.
Minority, incapacity, employer conduct, payment of benefits, latent conditions, and other circumstances can affect a limitations analysis in some jurisdictions. These rules are legal questions, not extensions that can be assumed from a general list.
The agency notice, current statute, regulation, and appellate instructions are the controlling sources for a particular matter. State workers' compensation agencies publish forms and contact information.
This page provides general deadline information and does not calculate a notice, filing, appeal, or reopening date for an individual claim.