Old, Reopened, and Long-Running Claims
Texas workers' comp claims can stay active for years, and a quiet old claim can become active again when the injury does. This section covers what continues, what can restart, and what changes when life moves on.
A comp claim runs longer than people expect
Most workers picture a comp claim the way they picture a car insurance claim: an event, some payments, a closing. A Texas workers' comp claim is not built that way. The medical side of a compensable injury has no end date; the law covers reasonable and necessary treatment for the injury for the rest of your life. The income side can run up to 401 weeks, roughly seven and a half years, and supplemental income benefits are decided again every quarter for as long as they last. A claim that is still open five or ten years after the injury is not a leftover error. It is the system working as designed.
My case has dragged on for years. Is that normal?
Often, yes. Lifetime medical care, income benefits that can span seven and a half years, and disputes that move through several stages all make multi-year claims ordinary in Texas. In claims our office has handled, one impairment rating dispute was still in litigation three years after the injury, and another worker was more than eleven quarters into supplemental income benefits with years still ahead.
The useful question is not how long the claim has run but whether each delay has a reason you can point to in writing. A claim that is long because benefits are still being paid, or because a dispute is moving through its stages, is normal. A claim that is long because checks stopped without a written notice, the same dispute keeps restarting, or nobody answers you is stuck, and stuck claims do not fix themselves. When Your Comp Checks Stop Coming covers unexplained payment stops, and Dispute Resolution explains what each stage of a dispute should look like, so you can tell motion from drift.
The pages in this section
- Reopening for Medical-Only After Income Benefits Are Exhausted. Your checks ended years ago and the injury needs a doctor again. The medical side of your claim never closed, and this page explains how to restart care and what the carrier may argue.
- Transferring a Texas Claim to Another State After Moving. Moving does not move your claim. What actually happens to benefits, doctors, exams, and prescriptions when you live outside Texas.
- Re-Injury After Returning From a Prior Comp Claim. You went back to work and got hurt again. Whether that is a new claim or part of the old one, and why the answer matters.
If you have carried a claim alone for years
Nothing about an old claim disqualifies you from getting help with it. Money already lost to old mistakes usually stays lost, but benefits going forward, underpayments, and stalled medical care can often still be corrected. It's Not Too Late: Getting Help Years Into Your Claim explains what can still be recovered late in a claim and what cannot.
The pages in this section
01 Section overview Reopening for Medical-Only After Income Benefits Are Exhausted ▸
02 Section overview Transferring a Texas Claim to Another State After Moving ▸
03 Section overview Re-Injury After Returning From a Prior Comp Claim ▸
Attorney notes regarding long-term & reopening old cases
An old workers’ compensation claim can be full of surprises. Some rights may continue for years, while others may have been limited or lost because of a deadline, an earlier decision, or something that became final long ago. Before assuming your case is over, it is important to find out what actually happened.
With an older claim, we want to know:
- What was finally accepted? The conditions included in your compensable injury can matter years later.
- Was MMI and an impairment rating issued? Those decisions may affect what benefits are still available.
- Were there earlier disputes or hearings? Prior decisions can control issues that cannot simply be argued again.
- Are you still entitled to medical care? Reaching MMI does not always mean that your right to medical benefits has ended.
- Has something changed? New medical problems, benefit notices, or action by the carrier may create questions that deserve another look.
At Abbott, Clay & Bedoy, we can review the history of an old claim and determine which rights remain, which issues have already been decided, and whether there is anything that can still be done.
Time passing does not answer those questions. The claim file does.
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