If you were hurt working in Raynham, Massachusetts, the workers’ compensation act — G.L. c. 152 — entitles you to weekly wage benefits and complete medical coverage without proving fault. When insurers delay, lowball, or deny, Shea Culgin Law takes the fight to the Department of Industrial Accidents. The consultation is free and the fee is contingent: 617-674-0408.
Where Raynham Residents Work — and Where Claims Come From
For a town its size, Raynham has a strikingly diverse employment base, and we see the full range of Chapter 152 claims from it:
- Medical device manufacturing: Johnson & Johnson’s DePuy orthopaedics operations have long maintained a major Raynham presence, anchoring a skilled manufacturing workforce. Production and lab environments generate repetitive-motion injuries, lacerations, and lifting trauma alongside less obvious occupational conditions.
- Retail and food service along Route 44: The corridor’s supermarkets, big-box stores, plazas, and restaurants employ a large hourly workforce facing lifting injuries, falls on wet floors, ladder accidents, and kitchen burns and cuts. Part-time and seasonal staff are covered from their first shift.
- Warehousing, distribution, and the trades: Proximity to Route 24 and I-495 supports distribution and construction activity throughout town — including ongoing commercial redevelopment around the Raynham Park property on Broadway. Forklifts, loading docks, ladders, and heights account for a steady stream of serious claims.
- Transportation: Delivery and trucking work in and out of Raynham’s commercial corridors carries crash risk that is both a comp claim and, frequently, a third-party liability claim.
- Public employees: Town workers, school staff, and first responders carry coverage under Chapter 152 or its parallel public-sector provisions.
The Benefits the Statute Guarantees
- §34 — temporary total incapacity: 60% of your average weekly wage, up to the state maximum, for as long as 156 weeks while you cannot work at all.
- §35 — partial incapacity: when you return to lighter or lower-paid work, weekly checks generally equal to 60% of your lost earning capacity, capped at 75% of your §34 rate, for up to 260 weeks.
- §34A — permanent and total incapacity: weekly benefits for life, with cost-of-living adjustments, when you can never return to gainful work.
- §36 — scarring and loss of function: a separate one-time payment for permanent functional loss, or scarring of the face, neck, or hands.
- Medical benefits: all reasonable and necessary treatment causally related to the injury — including emergency care at Morton Hospital in neighboring Taunton — at no cost to you, plus mileage to appointments.
- Lump-sum settlements: negotiated resolutions require DIA approval and carry consequences for future benefits and employment. Get advice before you sign anything.
From Injury Report to DIA Hearing
Tell your employer about the injury in writing immediately, and tell every doctor it happened at work — the medical record is the spine of the claim. If the insurer refuses or stops paying, we file at the Department of Industrial Accidents and push the claim through conciliation, conference, and, when necessary, a full hearing before an administrative judge, with appellate review available beyond that. You generally have four years from when you knew or should have known the injury was work-related to file — but insurers reward delay with denial, so we move early. The complete process is mapped on our workers’ compensation practice page.
Denied? That’s the Beginning, Not the End
“Pre-existing condition.” “Inconsistent histories.” “Independent medical exam says you’re fine.” We’ve heard every denial rationale an insurer can produce, and Chapter 152 gives us the tools to challenge each one — treating-physician reports, impartial medical examiners, vocational evidence, and cross-examination at hearing. A denial letter is an opening position.
Third Parties and §15: The Claim Beyond Comp
Comp bars suing your own employer, but G.L. c. 152, §15 preserves claims against everyone else who caused your injury — a negligent motorist who hit you on a delivery run down Route 44, an equipment manufacturer, a careless subcontractor. Third-party recoveries include pain and suffering, which comp never pays, and coordinating the two claims correctly protects your net recovery from the insurer’s lien.
Your Job Is Legally Protected
Under G.L. c. 152, §75B, retaliation for filing a comp claim — termination, demotion, harassment — is unlawful and independently actionable. If your employer punished you for getting hurt, that becomes part of our case.
Free Case Review for Raynham Workers
Shea Culgin Law is less than 20 minutes from Raynham, straight up Route 24 at 1350 Belmont Street, Suite 109, Brockton. Robert Shea and Joseph Culgin have handled Massachusetts comp claims for more than 20 years. Call 617-674-0408, or start at our Raynham hub page.
Raynham Workers’ Compensation FAQ
My employer told me to put my injury through my health insurance instead. Should I?
No. Workplace injuries belong on workers’ compensation, which pays 100% of related treatment with no co-pays and preserves your wage benefits. Routing a work injury through health insurance creates coverage problems and undermines your claim’s documentation.
How is my “average weekly wage” calculated if my hours vary?
Generally from your gross earnings — including overtime and often second-job wages — over the 52 weeks before the injury. Variable-hour retail and warehouse workers are routinely underpaid on this calculation, and correcting the AWW raises every benefit that flows from it.
I aggravated an old back injury lifting at work. Am I still covered?
Yes. Massachusetts compensates work injuries that aggravate pre-existing conditions, though where a prior condition combines with the work injury the standard can require the work injury to remain a major cause of disability. These are winnable cases with the right medical opinions.
What does hiring you cost if my claim succeeds?
In most accepted-claim disputes resolved at the DIA, the insurer pays the attorney’s fee on top of your benefits by statute; in lump-sum settlements the fee is a regulated percentage. Either way, nothing comes out of your pocket up front, and nothing is owed if we don’t recover.
