Connecticut Legislature Overrules State Supreme Court on Workers’ Compensation

Heeding outcry by employers, the Connecticut legislature has nullified the state Supreme Court’s interpretation of temporary partial disability provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act.

In March 2025, the Connecticut Supreme Court held that administrative law judges (ALJs) had discretion to require the continued payment of temporary partial disability (TPD) benefits to claimants who had already reached maximum medical improvement (MMI) in lieu of conversion to permanent partial disability (PPD) benefits. The decision broke with longstanding practice, upended decades of decisions to the contrary and caused widespread concern among employers that the decision would cause crippling increases in workers’ compensation costs. Employer groups called upon the legislature to curb the impact of the court’s decision in Gardner v. Dept. of Mental Health and Addiction Services. Last week, the Connecticut legislature answered that call with passage of a bill that amends the state’s Workers’ Compensation Act to provide expressly that ALJs do not possess the discretion at issue in Gardner to continue TPD benefits. 

The amendments limiting the impact of Gardner were passed as part of an appropriations bill. Key provisions include:

• When a claimant has reached MMI, the ALJ shall award PPD benefits in lieu of other compensation;
• PPD benefits for a claimant who remains unable to perform their usual job after reaching MMI will be limited to 60 weeks (reduced from 520 weeks) and be conditioned upon the claimant’s participation in a vocational rehabilitation program; and
• The 60 weeks of such PPD benefits will be offset by any temporary total benefits already received by the claimant.

Other amendments to the Workers’ Compensation Act made by the bill include changing the PPD schedule in Section 31-308(b) to increase the number of weeks that can be awarded for permanent partial injury to the cervical spine from 117 weeks to 208 weeks and adding the esophagus and intestinal tract to the benefit schedule. The bill also extends survivor benefits to the decedent’s parents, in addition to spouse and dependents.

The amendments to Section 31-308 restore pre-Gardner predictability to the workers’ compensation system to the relief of many private and public employers. The amendments take effect July 1, 2025, and will apply retroactively to claims filed on or after July 1, 1993.