Massachusetts workers’ compensation is a no-fault system: if you were injured on the job in Hanson — or injured anywhere in the Commonwealth while living in Hanson — G.L. c. 152 entitles you to wage replacement and full medical coverage without proving anyone did anything wrong. Shea Culgin Law has handled Chapter 152 claims for more than 20 years from our Brockton office 15 minutes away. Free consultations: 617-674-0408.
How Hanson Earns a Living
Hanson’s working identity runs deep — Ocean Spray was founded here in 1930 and kept its headquarters in town until 1977, and working cranberry bogs still dot the landscape. Today’s employment base is a mix of small business and public work: the supermarket and retail jobs along Liberty Street and Route 27, restaurants, auto and equipment shops, landscaping and agricultural work on the bogs, and the public payroll — the Whitman-Hanson Regional School District, town departments, the highway crew, police and fire. Each comes with its own injury patterns, from lifting and repetitive-strain injuries in retail and food service to equipment accidents, falls, and weather exposure in outdoor work.
Just as many Hanson residents are hurt somewhere else: riding the Kingston Line or driving Route 27 to jobs in Brockton, Boston, and along Route 3 in construction, healthcare, warehousing, and the trades. The location of the accident doesn’t matter — a Massachusetts work injury is a DIA claim wherever it occurs, and we handle it from Brockton.
Coverage is broad by design. Nearly every employer must carry workers’ compensation insurance, and part-time, seasonal, and first-day employees are covered.
What Chapter 152 Pays
- §34 — temporary total disability: 60% of your average weekly wage, up to the state maximum, for as long as you cannot work at all, capped at 156 weeks.
- §35 — partial disability: when you can work but earn less, weekly benefits cover a portion of the gap, generally up to 75% of your §34 rate, for as long as 260 weeks.
- §34A — permanent and total disability: lifetime weekly benefits, with cost-of-living adjustments, when return to work is impossible.
- §36 — disfigurement and loss of function: one-time payments for permanent functional loss and for scarring on the face, neck, or hands.
- Medical benefits: all reasonable, necessary, and causally related treatment, with no co-pays or deductibles, plus mileage to appointments — whether you treat at Brockton Hospital, South Shore Hospital, or with your own providers.
- Lump-sum settlement: a DIA-approved buyout of future benefits. Whether the number on the table beats the stream of benefits you’d otherwise receive is a calculation, and we run it for every client before anyone signs.
When the Insurer Says No
Disputed claims go to the Department of Industrial Accidents in stages. Conciliation is an informal attempt at resolution. If it fails, a conference before an administrative judge produces a binding order based on records and argument. Either side can appeal to a full evidentiary hearing, which usually includes an impartial physician’s examination that judges weigh heavily. Beyond that lie the Reviewing Board and the Appeals Court. Insurers bring lawyers to every stage; under the statute, when we win a contested claim the insurer generally pays our fee in addition to your benefits.
Two deadlines control: report the injury to your employer promptly and in writing, and file the claim within four years of when you knew or should have known the injury was work-related. Occupational diseases and gradual-onset conditions make that second date genuinely disputable — another reason to call early.
The Third-Party Claim Comp Doesn’t Replace
Chapter 152 bars suing your own employer, but §15 preserves negligence claims against everyone else responsible — the driver who hit your work vehicle on Route 27, a subcontractor on a shared job site, the maker of a defective machine. Third-party cases pay pain and suffering, which comp never does. Coordinating the two claims so the comp lien doesn’t swallow the lawsuit recovery is technical work we do routinely; see the workers’ compensation practice page.
Fired for Filing? That’s Illegal
§75B forbids retaliation — termination, demotion, harassment — against employees who exercise Chapter 152 rights. If your Hanson employer punished you for a comp claim, the law provides remedies including reinstatement and damages.
Free Review of Your Hanson Comp Claim
Call 617-674-0408. We’ll check the insurer’s math on your average weekly wage, review any denial or settlement offer, and tell you plainly where you stand. More local resources are on the Hanson hub page.
Hanson Workers’ Compensation FAQ
I work the bogs seasonally. Am I covered if I’m hurt during harvest?
Yes. Seasonal and agricultural employees are covered by workers’ compensation like anyone else, and your average weekly wage — the number every benefit is built on — must be calculated fairly for seasonal earnings. That calculation is frequently done wrong, and frequently worth fixing.
My employer told me to put the injury through my health insurance. Should I?
No. A work injury belongs on workers’ compensation, which pays 100% of related treatment with no co-pays and preserves your wage benefits. Routing it through health insurance creates repayment problems later and muddies the record that your injury was work-related.
Can I see my own doctor, or must I use the insurer’s?
You choose your treating physician. The insurer may require you to attend an independent medical examination with its doctor, but an IME is an evaluation, not treatment — and its report can be challenged at the DIA if benefits are cut because of it.
I was hurt on a job site in Boston but live in Hanson. Do I need a Boston firm?
No. DIA claims are statewide, and we represent South Shore workers injured anywhere in Massachusetts from our Brockton office — 15 minutes from Hanson, with most communication handled by phone anyway.
