Through Nevada Revised Statutes Chapters 616 and 617, the Nevada legislature has created a no fault system for work-related injuries and diseases. Worker’s Compensation law replaces the injured worker’s negligence lawsuit in common law against the employer. Thus, worker’s compensation is the exclusive remedy against the employer. The legislature’s intent was to ensure a quick and efficient payment to injured workers at a reasonable cost to employers.

A worker’s compensation claim must be filed when an employee is injured in an accident arising out of and in the course and scope of the injured worker’s employment. Significantly, Nevada law requires that Notice of Accident or Industrial Disease, the C-1 Form, be filed with the injured worker’s employer within seven (7) calendar days of the accident. A Claim for Compensation, a C-4 Form, must be filed within ninety (90) days of the accident if the injured worker sought medical treatment or was off work. The C-4 Form is typically completed at the time of receiving medical treatment. Therefore, it is important to receive treatment from the employer’s worker’s compensation provider list and to notify the treating physician that the injury is work-related. The treating physician has the obligation of submitting the C-4 Form. It is this form that opens the actual worker’s compensation claim. The failure of the injured worker to timely file either the C-1 Form or the C-4 Form will result in the denial of benefits unless: the injury prevented the filing; the injured worker’s mistake or ignorance of fact or law delayed the filing; physical or mental inability delayed the filing; or fraud, misrepresentation, or deceit on the employer’s part caused the untimely filing. Thus, it is very important to timely file a C-1 Form whenever an accident has occurred in the course and scope of employment, even if you think that you will not need to get medical treatment, in order to prevent having to establish one of the exceptions to the requirement of claim denial.

Once properly reported by the injured worker, via use of the C-1 and C-4 forms, a worker’s compensation claim must be addressed by the insurer with a required claim denial or acceptance issued within thirty (30) days.

Nevada no longer has a State Industrial Insurance System once know as SIIS. Now through legislative evolution, Nevada Workers Compensation is covered by private insurers or by employers who desire and are qualified to assume their own risks and self-insure. The Clark County School District is a self-insured employer.

There are many players in a worker’s compensation claim such as the employee, employer, insurer, claims adjuster, and third party administrator. All of the aforementioned players can combine in any number of ways to make a work injury claim interesting. However, the safest and most prudent step that an employee encountering a work-related injury/disease can take is to ensure that he/she reports the work-related injury/disease as soon as possible to his/her employer with the filing of a C-1 and C-4 form.