Missouri Governor Jay Nixon recently signed Senate Bill 1, which addresses long standing funding problems for the Missouri Second Injury Fund. The Governor asked the General Assembly to fix the Second Injury Fund in his January State of the State Address.

“I appreciate the bipartisan efforts of lawmakers and stakeholders to craft a fair solution to a difficult, complex and long running-problem,” Gov. Nixon said. “Shoring up the Second Injury Fund will provide long-overdue certainty to businesses and security to injured workers.”

The Second Injury Fund was established in 1943 to encourage businesses to hire previously disabled or injured individuals. The Second Injury Fund is financed by a surcharge on businesses’ workers’ compensation costs. For several years, the fund has been on the verge of insolvency because of a prior reduction in the surcharge amount. The new law provides for a supplemental surcharge on businesses not to exceed three percent of their workers’ compensation premiums. The law further reduces the scope of the Second Injury Fund’s coverage, by only allowing claims for permanent total disability to be filed against the Fund after January 1, 2014. The law also provides the priority of how Second Injury Fund dollars will be spent:

• Expenses relating to legal defense of the fund.

• Permanent total disability awards in the order in which they are settled or finally adjudicated.

• Permanent partial disability awards in the order in which they are settled or finally adjudicated.

• Medical expenses incurred prior to July 1, 2012.

• Interest on unpaid awards.

This new law represents substantial changes to the Missouri workers compensation scheme. Your time to file Second Injury Fund claims for permanent partial disability is critically short. You need to contact an experienced Missouri workers compensation attorney immediately to discuss the merits of your case. You may contact us by calling (573) 686-2459 or by email here.