§913 Filing of Claims

Summary

You must file a claim for job-related disability or death within one year after the injury or death. If compensation was paid without a formal award, you have one year from the last payment. Send the claim to the deputy commissioner in the compensation district where the injury or death happened. The one-year time limit does not start until the worker or beneficiary knows, or reasonably should have known, that the injury or death was caused by the job. A late claim is not automatically barred unless someone objects at the first hearing after proper notice. For occupational diseases that show up later, you have two years from when you learn (or should have learned) the job caused the disease and disability or death, or one year from the last payment, whichever is later. If the person is a minor or mentally incompetent with no guardian, the time limit is paused until a guardian is appointed or the person becomes of age. If a lawsuit was denied because the employer had provided compensation, the one-year clock starts only when that suit ends.