In August 2026, the Connecticut Appellate Court told a nursing assistant that her back and shoulder injuries were real, work-related, and — legally speaking — no longer her employer’s problem. Not because anyone disputed she was hurt on the job. Because she filed the paperwork too late.
The case is Callahan v. iCare Health Management, LLC. She was injured in 2017. She filed her notices of claim between 2020 and 2022. The Workers’ Compensation Commission never reached the question of what she was owed, because it ruled it had no jurisdiction to hear her at all.
That is the part of Connecticut workers’ compensation nobody explains on the first day of a new job. The benefits are generous by design. The door to them closes fast, and it closes whether or not you knew it was open.
There are two clocks, and you do not get to pick
Under C.G.S. § 31-294c, a written notice of claim must be filed:
- Within one year of the accident, for an accidental injury
- Within three years of the first symptom, for an occupational disease
Three years sounds like plenty of room. It is also the clock most workers assume applies to them, because most workplace injuries in Connecticut do not happen in a single dramatic moment. They accumulate — a shoulder that gives out after years of lifting, a back that fails after a decade of the same motion.
That accumulation is called repetitive trauma, and here is the trap: Connecticut does not automatically treat repetitive trauma as an occupational disease. Callahan confirmed that repetitive trauma claims generally fall into the accidental injury category, which means the one-year clock — running from your last day of exposure at that job.
To earn the three-year window instead, you have to prove the condition is peculiar to your occupation and caused by hazards in excess of the ordinary risks of employment. The court was explicit that showing the work caused it is not enough. You need medical evidence that this specific occupation made you more susceptible than other physically demanding work would have.
Most people do not develop that evidence on their own. Most people find out it was required after the deadline has passed.
How the first month actually unfolds
If you are hurt at work in Connecticut today, the sequence looks roughly like this.
Day one. You report the injury to your employer. Do it in writing, even if you also say it out loud, and keep a copy. Verbal reports evaporate; a dated email does not. Your employer directs your initial medical treatment.
The first weeks. After that initial employer-directed treatment, you generally choose your own treating physician. The exception matters: if your employer participates in an approved medical care plan, you must select from the doctors on that plan’s list. Changing physicians later is possible through a referral, carrier approval, or a request to an Administrative Law Judge.
Filing the claim. A Form 30C — the Notice of Claim for Compensation — is what actually preserves your rights. Reporting the injury to a supervisor is not the same thing as filing a claim. This is where most claims are lost.
Day 28. This one runs in your favor. Once your employer receives that written notice, they have 28 days to either start paying compensation or file a formal notice contesting liability. If they do neither, they are conclusively presumed to have accepted that your injury is compensable. They can still argue about how disabled you are. They cannot go back and argue it never happened at work.
That 28-day provision is one of the strongest tools in the Act, and it only exists if the notice was filed correctly in the first place.
What the benefits are actually worth
Connecticut pays temporary total disability at 75% of your after-tax average weekly wage, calculated from the 52 weeks before the injury. Because it is figured after taxes and Social Security rather than on gross pay, the real-world replacement rate is higher than the “75%” headline suggests.
There is a ceiling. Effective October 1, 2025, the Connecticut Workers’ Compensation Commission set the state average weekly wage — and the maximum weekly total disability rate — at $1,716.00.
Medical treatment for an accepted claim costs you nothing. Bills go to the carrier, never to you, and providers are barred from billing you directly. If you are getting invoices for treatment on an accepted claim, something has gone wrong and it is worth a phone call.
Beyond wage replacement, claims can include permanent partial disability awards for lasting impairment, and discretionary benefits where an injury permanently reduces your earning capacity.
Questions we get in the first conversation
Can I be fired for filing?
No. C.G.S. § 31-290a bars an employer from discharging or discriminating against you for filing a claim or exercising your rights under the Act. Remedies include reinstatement, back wages, and attorney’s fees. Fear of retaliation is one of the most common reasons claims never get filed — and it is a reason the statute specifically addresses.
Can I sue instead?
Not your employer. Workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy against them. But if someone other than your employer caused the injury — a negligent driver, a contractor on a shared site, a defective machine — you may have a separate third-party claim on top of the comp claim, handled as a personal injury case. These are frequently missed, and they are often worth more than the comp claim itself.
What if the claim is denied?
Denial is not the end. Disputes move through the Commission in stages — an informal hearing first, then a pre-formal to narrow the issues, then a formal hearing with sworn testimony and a written Finding and Award. Bridgeport and the surrounding towns are handled by the Fourth District office at 350 Fairfield Avenue.
What if I already missed the deadline?
Talk to someone before you assume you did. The date the clock started is a legal question, not an obvious one — for repetitive trauma it runs from last exposure, not from when the pain began, and the occupational disease classification is genuinely arguable in some cases. Callahan is a warning about waiting. It is not a reason to give up without asking.
The window is shorter than the injury
The cruel arithmetic of repetitive trauma is that the injuries which take years to develop are the ones governed by the shortest deadline. By the time a shoulder finally stops working, the one-year clock from your last day of exposure may already be most of the way gone.
If you are hurt and still working through it, that is exactly the moment to get the notice on file. Filing does not commit you to a fight. It keeps the door open.
Talk to Tom
Ganim, Ganim & Ganim, P.C. has handled workers’ compensation claims for Bridgeport and Fairfield County workers since 1951, out of the same Main Street office. If you were injured on the job — recently or a while ago — a conversation costs you nothing and can tell you quickly whether your claim is still live.
Call (203) 372-7772 or request a free case review. You can read more on our workers’ compensation page.
Keep calm. Call Tom.
This article is general information about Connecticut law and is not legal advice. Deadlines, benefit rates, and classifications depend on the facts of the individual case, and the law changes. Speak with an attorney about your specific situation.