What is PERA?

If you’re a Minnesota police officer or firefighter, or a Hennepin County paramedic or emergency medical technician who been injured or suffered an illness, you may be eligible for disability benefits through the Public Employees Retirement Association (PERA) if you are unable to perform your normal job duties for a period of a year or more. Under PERA, there are two basic types of disability benefits: duty disability benefits and regular disability benefits. Only an attorney skilled and experienced in Minnesota PERA will be able to fully investigate your claim, determine the differences, and get you the compensation you deserve.

To qualify for regular disability benefits under Minnesota Statutes section 353.656, subd. 3, you must have a physical or psychological condition that is expected to prevent you from performing your normal duties for a period of at least a year. The disability can be non-work related, or it can be the result of a work injury incurred while performing duties that are not specific to protecting property or safety, or duties that are not inherently dangerous. Regular disability benefits are paid at a rate of forty-five percent of your average monthly salary benefit during the highest five consecutive years of earnings, otherwise known as the “high five.”

To qualify for duty disability benefits under Minnesota Statutes section 353.656, subd. 1, you must meet a higher standard. You must have a physical or psychological condition that is expected to prevent you from performing your normal duties as a police officer or firefighter for a period of at least a year. In addition, the disability must be the direct result of an injury incurred during, or an illness arising out of, the performance of your duties. Those duties must present inherent dangers that are specific to police officers or firefighters. Duty disability benefits are paid at a base rate of sixty percent of your average monthly salary benefit during the highest five consecutive years of earnings, i.e., your “high five.”

There are many advantages to receiving duty disability benefits. These benefits pay at a significantly higher rate than regular disability benefits, and are tax-free, which potentially results in a savings of tens of thousands of dollars. In addition, if you have in excess of twenty years of service, you receive a three percent increase for each year of service you have in excess of twenty years. However, timing and age is an important factor in determining when to apply for the benefit. An application for duty disability benefits generally must be filed before you reach the age of 55, or you may be precluded from receiving this benefit. Therefore, if you are nearing the age of 55 and think you may have a duty disability claim, it’s imperative that you call Meuser Law Office, P.A. to discuss your rights as soon as possible.

In addition, if you are found to be eligible for PERA duty disability benefits, you are also eligible for Continued Health Insurance Coverage under Minnesota Statute section 299A.465. This coverage requires your employer to pay its share of your insurance premiums until you reach the age of 65. This could result in thousands of dollars of savings in medical and insurance bills.

What are the effects of the recent changes made to PERA?

The Minnesota Legislature enacted significant changes to PERA that were effectuated this summer. Among these changes were delayed cost of living increases and increased penalties for early retirement. In response to these imminent changes, many police officers and firefighters throughout Minnesota chose to retire this summer to avoid being affected by the unfavorable changes to the law. This trend has been of some concern to those of us who represent injured workers in the context of PERA. By choosing to retire, a number of these police officers, firefighters, and state workers have potentially jeopardized their claims for duty disability benefits, healthcare benefits under Minnesota Statutes section 299a.465, and those benefits available under the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Act.

When should you retire under PERA?

Unfortunately, deciding which benefit to apply for and the application process itself can be extremely confusing and complicated. An application for duty disability benefits may be denied due to a technicality or a failure to submit the proper documentation to PERA. It’s easy to make mistakes that have the potential of costing you hundreds of thousands of dollars. One of these critical decisions is whether and when to retire under PERA because retirement can preclude you from receiving benefits you were otherwise entitled to.

In fact, if you file for retirement, you may jeopardize the vast majority of your benefits. In this way, what you don’t know can cost you. Therefore, if you’ve ever had a work place injury, you should not file for retirement without first talking to the experienced attorneys at Meuser Law Office, P.A. Even if you’ve already retired, you still may qualify for Continued Health Insurance Coverage under Minnesota Statute section 299A.465 up to 18 months after your date of retirement. Meuser Law Office, P.A. has represented hundreds of police officers and firefighters across the state of Minnesota. The value of PERA duty disability benefits, healthcare continuation, and workers’ compensation benefits often exceeds several hundred thousand dollars.

Even if you don’t think you qualify, you might be surprised to find out that you are entitled to benefits under PERA. Call our office to set up a free, no obligation consultation and discuss the details of your specific situation.

Having practiced law in Minnesota over the last 20 years I am dismayed by the nature and extent of legal advertisements which bombard our airwaves. Watching television, listening to the radio or searching on Google, we repeatedly are subjected to ads from lawyers preying on what I would refer to as the “low information consumers”. Unfortunately, with the rare exception, lawyers delivering ads that contain scare tactics or promises of large settlements are not particularly good lawyers and rely upon such advertising to generate their clients when they are unable to do so otherwise through client referrals, reputation, etc. In fact, many ads are placed by Chiropractors who then refer out the cases to lawyers in their “network” with little regard to the expertise and/or experience of the lawyer https://impotenzastop.it/. Just ask Gary.

Your lawyer should come from a firm that practices exclusively in the area of Minnesota Worker’s Compensation, personal injury and, if you are a member of the police or fire department, PERA. While many cases are limited to one set of laws, an experienced lawyer will determine if there are other claims arising out of your injuries. Let me describe a recent case to demonstrate.

When injured employees bring a Minnesota worker’s compensation claim, insurers and employers have a right to send the employee to an independent medical exam (IME). Doctors paid by the insurance company perform the exam and therefore are not independent and very rarely find the employee is injured. If on the rare occasion the doctor finds the employee is injured, the IME report typically states the injury is not a result of his or her employment. During the IME the doctor performs a brief examination, but the vast majority of the written report is based on a review of the employee’s medical records. Independent medical exams are particularly troublesome in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases for a few reasons, such as:

Independent medical exams conducted on police officers, firefighters, corrections officers, deputy sheriffs, and 911 dispatchers in Minnesota workers’ compensation cases are extremely subjective. Unlike other work comp cases, injured workers can point to objective findings on an MRI or CT scan. Mental illness has subjective components.

In order for a medical provider to diagnose a person with PTSD, the person must meet the criteria set forth by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Clinicians may choose to administer a few different tests in order to support his or her diagnosis, including the MMPI-2 (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory), CAPS-5 (Clinician Administered Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Scale for DSM-5), PCL-5 (PTSD Checklist for DSM-5), or MCMI-III (Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory).

These tests rely heavily on self-reporting and therefore, make it easy for the IME doctor to claim that the injured worker is malingering, over-reporting, or making up symptoms. Experienced clinicians who regularly treat people with post-traumatic stress disorder can differentiate between fake and real symptoms, but IME doctors motivated by money from the insurance company are not inclined to diagnose injured workers with PTSD.

Additionally, more often than not PTSD occurs with a number of other mental health conditions. People who suffer from PTSD may also suffer from an anxiety disorder or depression and may abuse alcohol as well. IME doctors may purposefully attribute all the injured worker’s symptoms to other disorders, which in most cases are not compensable under the Minnesota Workers’ Compensation Act.

IMEs also may re-traumatize injured workers with PTSD. The injured worker is forced to report and relive traumatic events under the microscope during an adversarial process, people looking to discredit and to minimize their experiences.

Unfortunately, the nature of post-traumatic stress disorder lends itself to many of the excuses that employers and insurers use to deny PTSD claims. An even sadder reality is that almost all the employers of our clients with PTSD, police officers, sheriff deputies, and corrections officers are public employees. Our cities and counties are more comfortable granting benefits to public servants with physical injuries that they can see, not the mental scars left behind from being forced to shoot someone in the line of duty, seeing children die in grisly car accidents, being shot at by strangers, or seeing the aftermath of domestic violence. We need to do better by the people who keep the public safe and in the process suffer a very real, debilitating injury.

At Meuser Law Office, P.A. we have successfully represented many injured workers with PTSD, including police officers, firefighters, correction officers, deputy sheriffs, and 911 dispatchers. We have successfully obtained settlements and benefits on behalf of our clients despite negative IME reports. It’s very important to choose a team of lawyers with extensive experience in this complicated area of law if you or someone you love suffers from PTSD as a result of his or her employment. Contact us today at Meuser Law Office, P.A. for a free no-obligation consultation by calling 1-877-746-5680.

Permanent Partial Disability (PPD) is a Minnesota workers’ compensation benefit that is payable for the permanent functional loss of use of a body part due to a work-related injury. Once you have reached Maximum Medical Improvement (MMI), if you have a permanent injury, your doctor may assign you a permanent partial disability rating. Your doctor will refer to the Permanent Partial Disability guidelines developed by the Department of Labor and Industry, under Chapter 5223 of the Administrative Rules. The percentage rating you are assigned is then multiplied by a dollar figure set by the Minnesota legislature to determine the amount of your permanent partial disability benefit. For example, if you’ve sustained a herniated disc in your lumbar spine, and you’ve been assigned a 10% permanent partial disability rating, the benefit owed to you would be $8,000.00.