A new law, meant to control rising workers' comp insurance rates, is significantly limiting the benefits available to injured workers. The new law requires physicians to determine the percentage of a worker's permanent disability that is caused by work and the percentage that can be attributed to other factors. Workers' comp insurance rates have dropped an average 10.38 percent since the new law went into effect, but from 2000 to 2003, rates jumped an average 149 percent.
See "New Law Delays Workers' Comp for Many", The New York Times, July 26, 2004