Maryland treats correctional officers differently depending on who employs them, and the difference is worth real money.
Correctional officers in Montgomery County and Prince George’s County have a statutory presumption for heart disease and hypertension. Correctional officers employed by the State, Baltimore County and Harford County get the higher permanent partial disability rate but no presumption at all. Source: Md. Code, Labor & Employment §§ 9-503(b) and 9-628(a)
Two counties get the burden shift. Several other employers get the benefit-rate advantage instead. Getting that wrong at the start is how these claims get undervalued. There is no cost to talk to us, and you pay nothing unless we win.
At Pinder Plotkin, the initial consultation is free, whether by phone or in person. You have the right to an attorney, and we work on a contingency basis — you do not pay attorney fees up front while dealing with medical bills and lost wages, and our fee comes only after you win.
Maryland treats correctional officers differently depending on who employs them. Two separate statutes are in play and they do not cover the same people.
Only two correctional officer groups appear in § 9-503 at all: Montgomery County correctional officers and Prince George’s County correctional officers. Both are limited by § 9-503(b)(2) — the presumption applies only to the extent the condition is more severe than a pre-employment medical examination showed.
The conditions are heart disease and hypertension only. No lung disease. No cancer.L&E § 9-503(b)
The § 9-628(a) “public safety employee” list is a different list. It reaches correctional officers employed by the State, Baltimore County and Harford County, plus Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County detention officers — none of whom have a § 9-503 presumption.
Those officers get the benefit-rate advantage: a Tier 1 permanency award paid at the Tier 2 rate under § 9-628(h). They do not get the burden shift. That matters more than it sounds: about three quarters of Maryland permanency awards fall in the 0–74 week band (6,479 of 8,611 in FY2024), which is exactly where the bump applies.L&E § 9-628(a), (h)
The two lists overlap and neither contains the other. A file built on the assumption that being a correctional officer means having a presumption will be built wrong — and a file that assumes no presumption exists can leave the burden shift on the table.
Both lists get run on every public safety file we open.
The burden never comes back to you. Maryland’s highest court applied that rule in City of Frederick v. Shankle, 367 Md. 5, 785 A.2d 749 (2001), which rests on Montgomery County Fire Board v. Fisher, 298 Md. 245, 468 A.2d 625 (1983): this is a presumption of fact that stays in the case as affirmative evidence throughout, and that both the burden of production and the burden of persuasion remain fixed on the employer — neither ever shifts to the claimant. An employer’s expert may not simply deny or contradict the presumption because the expert disagrees with the premise behind it. Rebuttal has to be claimant-specific evidence about you, not a general attack on the legislature’s reasoning.
Under Md. Labor & Employment §9-503, correctional officers in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties, and detention officers in Anne Arundel County, get an occupational-disease presumption for heart disease and hypertension. Howard County correctional officers are not named in that list — so whether the presumption applies can depend on which county you work in. If you work in Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard, or Harford County, the presumption doesn't apply directly — but that doesn't end your claim.
Maryland workers' comp is no-fault, so you do not have to prove your facility did anything wrong. Even without the presumption, you can still win a claim — it just means proving the work connection, which we do.
Report it in writing or verbally within ten days of the injury. If you develop an occupational disease, you must report it to your employer within one year of discovering the illness.
Get to a doctor as soon as you can and follow your healthcare provider's instructions. Tell them about your injury in detail so you get the proper treatment — and so the record ties your condition to the job.
Your healthcare provider will record your injury, but it helps to document it yourself too — how it happened, your symptoms, and the treatment you're getting.
Photograph the injury if it's visible. Photos can serve as evidence of the extent of your injuries even after they heal, and can help show the cause of the injury.
File your claim with the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission with the help of a workers' compensation attorney, who can handle the paperwork and legal steps needed within the filing deadline.
Assault and restraint injuries, back and shoulder injuries, and exposure claims are all compensable work injuries.
Even without the presumption, you can still win a claim — it just means proving the work connection, which we do.
Report within 10 days, file with the Commission within two years.
Maryland workers' comp is no-fault, so you do not have to prove your facility did anything wrong. A claim generally pays for medical treatment, a portion of lost wages, and an award for any permanent impairment.
Our workers' compensation attorney, Marc Hassan, and our team handle Maryland work-injury and presumption claims from the first report to the Commission hearing. We know how insurers try to rebut the §9-503 presumption — and how to push back.
Joshua Fannon is an attorney with the Pinder Plotkin Legal Team and a 25-year first responder — Battalion Chief with the Baltimore City Fire Department and elected President of IAFF Local 964. On public-safety claims he brings an insider's grasp of occupational injury and the presumption statutes.
We represent officers across Baltimore City and Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Howard, Harford, Prince George’s and Montgomery counties. The consultation is free.
Unlike a typical injury claim, Maryland workers' comp benefits are set by statute — not negotiated case-by-case with an insurance adjuster. You may be entitled to:
As with other workers' comp claims, you generally receive two-thirds of your average weekly wage as compensation while you're out of work.
Temporary total disability pays two-thirds of your average weekly wage while you’re unable to work, capped at the state average weekly wage (§ 9-621). Under the 14-day/3-day waiting rule (§ 9-620), if you’re out fewer than 14 days, the first 3 days aren’t paid unless your disability continues 14 days or more.
Maryland pays permanent-disability awards in tiers. For a smaller permanent partial disability (under 75 weeks), a civilian is paid at the Tier 1 rate — one-third of their average weekly wage. Under Md. Labor & Employment §9-628, a qualifying public-safety employee with the same award is paid at the Tier 2 rate — two-thirds of their average weekly wage — roughly double for the same injury. Whether a correctional or detention officer qualifies depends on the county, which is exactly the detail we sort out above.
Your workers’ comp claim is against your employer’s insurer and doesn’t depend on fault — but it also doesn’t pay for pain and suffering. If someone other than your employer helped cause your injury, you may also have a separate third-party claim that can recover more. We look at both so you don’t leave money on the table.
Maryland workers’ comp generally covers employees, not true independent contractors. But workers are often misclassified — if your employer controlled how and when you did your work, you may be covered even if you were labeled a contractor. It’s worth letting us take a look before you assume you have no claim.
Whatever your role, if you were hurt on the job across Maryland, Maryland's workers' compensation system is built to get you medical care and wage-replacement benefits. Some public-safety roles carry additional statutory protections — see our pages for firefighters & EMTs, police officers, correctional officers, and public safety employees below.
Workplace injuries are more common than most people realize, and Maryland’s no-fault system gives injured workers real protections — including some added protections for public-safety roles.
Under Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 9-503, the heart disease and hypertension presumption covers correctional officers in Montgomery and Prince George's counties and detention officers in Anne Arundel County — Howard County correctional officers are not named. Claims must be filed within two years under § 9-709.
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Estimate what your Maryland workers’ comp claim could be worth.
Estimate Your Settlement ValueWorkers' compensation is insurance employers carry to cover injuries an employee suffers on the job. Under Maryland law, an injured worker is paid for medical expenses and lost wages related to the injury, and because it is a no-fault system you generally do not have to prove your employer did anything wrong.
Not every workplace incident qualifies. In Maryland, your injury is covered only if it arises out of and occurs in the course of your employment, meaning it happened while you were doing your job and resulted from the conditions of that work.
Report the injury to your employer, in writing or verbally, within ten days of getting hurt (occupational illnesses have their own timeline), get medical treatment, and speak with a workers' comp lawyer before dealing with the insurer.
Start by reporting the work-related injury or illness to your supervisor or employer right away. From there you file a claim with the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission, and a lawyer can make sure it is done correctly and on time.
A denial means the insurer does not think your injury is compensable, but you can challenge it. An experienced Maryland workers' comp lawyer can request a hearing before the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission and fight for your benefits.
You have the right to an attorney, and Pinder Plotkin works on a contingency basis, so you do not pay attorney fees up front while dealing with medical bills and lost wages, and our fee comes only after you win.
No. § 9-503 names only Montgomery County and Prince George’s County correctional officers. State correctional officers appear instead on the § 9-628(a) public safety employee list, which pays a Tier 1 permanency award at the higher Tier 2 rate. You get the benefit-rate advantage without the burden shift, which means the medical causation evidence has to do more of the work.
For Montgomery County and Prince George’s County correctional officers, § 9-503(b)(2) gives the presumption only to the extent the condition is more severe than what a pre-employment medical examination showed. In practice that makes the pre-employment record one of the first documents we ask for. If no examination was done, or the record does not show the condition, that limitation has far less to work with.
Three Maryland offices — Baltimore (Nottingham), Laurel and Bel Air — and we travel statewide to meet clients who cannot travel to us. Call (888) 844-5373 to schedule a visit.
Three places tell you. The hearing notice the Commission sends names the site, the room and the time. The same details sit next to your claim in CompHub, the Commission’s online claim system. And the Commission posts its daily dockets online, so you can look the site up the day before. If we represent you, we confirm the location with the Commission before every hearing and tell you exactly where to go and when to be there.
A Maryland workers’ compensation case starts when you file an Employee Claim Form with the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission. You can file it online through CompHub — there is an option for people who would rather not set up an account — or file by mail or in person at the Commission’s office, 10 East Baltimore Street, 4th Floor, Baltimore, MD 21202. The Commission’s number is (410) 864-5100, or 1-800-492-0479 toll free from outside the Baltimore area. Reporting the injury to your employer is a separate step — telling your boss does not file your claim.
The Commission hears cases in Baltimore City and at six regional sites.
Sites and hearing rooms change. Always go by the location on your hearing notice, and call the Commission or your attorney if anything about it is unclear.
We handle workers' compensation claims for correctional officers and other public-safety employees throughout Maryland.
We take cases anywhere in Maryland. The figure on each card is the number of workers' compensation claims the Commission received from that jurisdiction in fiscal year 2023 — the last year the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission published a jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction breakdown. Claim volume tracks how many people work in a jurisdiction, not how dangerous it is. Each name links to its official local government website.
Statewide, Maryland workers filed 21,837 claims with the Commission in fiscal year 2025, down from 22,149 in fiscal year 2024. The Commission no longer publishes that total broken down by jurisdiction, which is why the figures above are dated FY2023.
Source: MDOT Zero Deaths Maryland jurisdiction crash data summaries, 2023. Statewide totals: 577 fatal crashes and 621 traffic deaths.
Jason Plotkin was born and raised here, and he has lived in six Maryland jurisdictions — Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Montgomery County, Howard County, Allegany County and Worcester County. Mountains to shore. That is not a marketing line; it is where he has actually lived.
Marc Hassan, Tony Balasamo and Joshua Fannon were born and raised in Maryland too, and Christian Miele served in the Maryland House of Delegates. When you work with our firm, you are working with people who know this state — its roads, its courts and its neighbors.
You do a hard, dangerous job most people never see. Let us protect your claim. Call the Pinder Plotkin Legal Team at (888) 844-5373 for a free, no-pressure consultation — and don't sign anything from the insurer until we've talked.
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