Hurt on the job anywhere in Maryland? Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system — you do not have to prove anyone was negligent, and being partly at fault for your own injury does not bar your claim.
Maryland received 21,837 workers’ compensation claims in FY2025, 22,149 in FY2024 and 21,661 in FY2023. Source: Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission annual reports
What it does run on is paperwork and deadlines — and the first one is 60 days. 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.
The single most important thing to understand, and the thing most often got wrong: this is a no-fault system. It does not work like a car accident claim.
You do not have to prove your employer or anyone else was negligent. You have to show the injury arose out of and in the course of your employment.
Being partly at fault for your own injury does not bar a workers’ compensation claim. Contributory negligence — the rule that can end an ordinary Maryland injury case outright — has no application here. If you have read otherwise, including anywhere on this website in the past, that was wrong and we have corrected it.
An accidental personal injury claim should be filed with the Commission within 60 days of the injury.L&E § 9-709(a)(1)
And there is a hard stop: if a covered employee fails to file within two years of the accidental personal injury, the claim is completely barred.L&E § 9-709(b)(3)
Report the injury to your employer straight away and get the incident report. The paperwork trail is what the claim runs on.
Permanent partial disability awards run in three tiers. About three quarters of all Maryland permanency awards fall in the lowest band — under 75 weeks, 6,479 of 8,611 in FY2024.
That band is exactly where the public safety bump applies: a public safety employee with a Tier 1 award is paid at the higher Tier 2 rate, roughly doubling the weekly figure.L&E § 9-628(h)
Confirming public safety employee status is the highest-leverage single check on a file, and it is missed often.
Maryland received 21,661 workers’ compensation claims in FY2023, 22,149 in FY2024 and 21,837 in FY2025. Police and fire alone accounted for 2,562 of the FY2023 total — about one claim in nine.Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission annual reports; the combined police-and-fire figure is our arithmetic
A third party may also be responsible. Workers’ compensation is your remedy against your employer, but if someone else caused the injury — a driver, a contractor on the same site, a machine manufacturer — there may be a separate injury claim alongside it. Those cases are worth more and they are routinely missed, because the comp claim gets opened and nobody asks who else was involved.
Maryland treats some workers very differently from others. If you are in one of these groups, the page for your job is where the detail lives.
Claim volumes are from the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission FY2023 Annual Report. Every industry figure in this project is dated FY2023 because the Commission discontinued that breakdown after that report.
Because Maryland workers’ comp is no-fault, an injured worker does not have to prove the employer did anything wrong. Under Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 9-501, you’re entitled to benefits simply because you were injured on the job, regardless of who caused the accident.
Report the injury to your employer, in writing or verbally, within ten days of getting hurt (occupational illnesses have their own timeline). From there you file a claim with the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission within two years (§ 9-709), and a lawyer can make sure it’s done correctly and on time.
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.
You have the right to file for workers' compensation and the right to medical care for your work injury.
You have the right to calculate your losses independently and the right to file for other claims compensation if a third party contributed to your injury.
You have the right to recuperate and the right to legal representation throughout the claims process.
You have the right to take your claim to court and the right to be free from retaliation for filing a claim.
We file your claim with the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission and help you appeal if it's denied.
We compile and submit the correct medical evidence that supports your claim and handle settlement negotiations on your behalf.
We protect your rights when you return to work, and offer a free consultation to assess your work injury claim from the start.
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 partial disability awards in tiers based on the length of the award: under 75 weeks is paid at one-third of your average weekly wage (§ 9-628); 75 weeks or more is paid at two-thirds of your average weekly wage, with a higher cap on longer awards (§ 9-629, § 9-630).
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 Maryland law, your employer must report a workplace injury within 10 days (§ 9-704), and you have a hard two-year deadline to file a claim with the Workers’ Compensation Commission (§ 9-709).
Get a fast, free estimate of what your case could be worth.
Estimate what your Maryland workers’ comp claim could be worth.
Estimate Your Settlement ValueWorkers' compensation is insurance employers pay to cover injuries an employee sustains on the job. Maryland law requires that an injured employee receive payment for medical expenses and lost wages related to the injury, regardless of fault.
Not every workplace incident qualifies. 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. This also covers occupational diseases you develop because of job conditions.
A denial means the insurer doesn't think your injury is compensable, but you can challenge that decision. An experienced Maryland workers' comp lawyer can help you establish whether an appeal is the right choice and request a hearing before the Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission.
A workers' comp attorney can help you appeal a denied claim, protect your rights when you return to work, file your claim, compile and submit the correct medical evidence, and handle settlement negotiations — all starting with a free consultation.
No, and this is the most important difference between workers’ compensation and an ordinary injury claim. Maryland workers’ compensation is a no-fault system: you do not have to prove your employer or anyone else was negligent, only that the injury arose out of and in the course of your employment. Being partly at fault for your own injury does not bar a claim. Contributory negligence, the rule that can end an ordinary Maryland injury case outright, has no application here.
Sooner than most people realize. A claim for accidental personal injury should be filed with the Commission within 60 days of the injury under Md. Code, Labor & Employment § 9-709(a)(1). And there is an absolute bar: if a covered employee fails to file within two years of the accidental personal injury, § 9-709(b)(3) provides that the claim is completely barred. Report the injury to your employer immediately and ask for a copy of the incident report.
Sometimes, and it is routinely missed. Workers’ compensation is your remedy against your employer, but if a third party caused the injury — another driver, a contractor on the same site, the manufacturer of a machine — there may be a separate injury claim alongside the comp claim. Those cases are worth considerably more. The comp claim gets opened and nobody asks who else was involved, which is exactly the question worth asking on day one.
Substantially. Maryland gives paid and volunteer firefighters, fire fighting instructors, rescue squad members and advanced life support members a statutory presumption that heart disease, hypertension, lung disease and fourteen enumerated cancers are occupational. Police officers and certain deputy sheriffs get a narrower presumption covering heart disease and hypertension. Separately, a “public safety employee” is paid at a higher permanent partial disability rate. The two lists overlap and neither contains the other, so both need checking. Each group has its own page above.
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 cases 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.
The Commission no longer publishes claims 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.
Free case review, no pressure, no fee unless we win. Reach out and one of our attorneys will walk you through your options.
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