Montana Supreme Court Re-evaluates Workers’ Compensation Laws

June 16, 2009

Lawyers representing three disabled workers took a case the Supreme Court of Montana this week, to challenge a law that allows employers to deny workers’ compensation benefits to employees after they reach a retirement age.

Many are calling these laws irrational, because the employees are getting less benefits for more work. They say that such discrimination by age is unconstitutional and that it is unlawful to allow some employees to collect workers’ compensation, while others may not because they are already past the age of retirement.

Workers’ compensation is generally paid out when an employee is injured on the job. The monetary payout helps to cover medical expenses, lost wages and also provides some compensation for physical and emotional damages.

Employers are required by federal and state laws to purchase workers’ compensation insurance. This allows them to make the payouts in the instance of an employee injury. The current case for employees who are past the retirement age is expected to increase insurance costs by millions of dollars for the state of Montana and for its businesses.