Hurt at Work
ORC 4123.84 — one year for an injury, and it used to be two
The deadline on a workplace injury claim in Ohio was shortened in 2017, from two years to one. Anything written before October of that year says two, and a great deal of what is written since repeats it, so this is a number worth checking against the date on whatever you are reading.
Who handles this in Ohio: legal aid programs, lawyer referral and the state offices, listed in the Ohio directory.
One year from the injury, and it is not the same clock for everything. A traditional injury claim, whether it is lost time, medical only, or a death claim, has one year from the injury or death. An occupational disease runs under its own section, which was shortened the same way on the twenty eighth of September 2021: one year after the disability due to the disease began, or a longer period that does not exceed six months after the disease is diagnosed, or one year after a death. Before that date it said two years.
| What happened | The window |
|---|---|
| What happenedAn injury on a date you can name | The windowOne year from that date |
| What happenedA death claim | The windowOne year from the death |
| What happenedAn occupational disease | The windowOne year after the disability began, or up to six months after diagnosis where that is later |
| What happenedA death from occupational disease | The windowOne year after the death |
| What happenedA safety requirement violation | The windowOne year for claims arising on or after 15 September 2020, and two years for claims before |
A medical only claim is still a claim. People who lose no time from work often assume there is nothing to file, treat it through their own health insurance, and discover a year later that the injury did not resolve and the window has closed on the only route that would have covered it.
Filing is not something an employer grants. A claim is filed with the bureau. An employer certifies or rejects a claim after it exists, which is a different thing from deciding whether it gets made, and an employer's view of whether something is worth reporting does not move the date in the section. The clock runs from the injury regardless of what anybody at work said about it.
“What is the date of injury, and how long ago was that.”
What benefits a claim pays, how a denied claim is appealed, the district and staff hearing levels, and appeals into common pleas each run under their own sections and are not on this page. Self insuring employers run a different process for reporting. Whether an injury arose out of employment, whether a condition is an occupational disease, and whether a late claim has any route left are questions for a licensed Ohio attorney, and injured worker representation is commonly taken on a contingency capped by statute.
Sources for this section (4)
- ORC 4123.84 — The time within which a workers' compensation claim has to be filed
- Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation — Where a workplace injury claim is filed, and what it does with one
- ORC 4123.85 — The time within which an occupational disease claim has to be filed
- OAC 4121-3-20 — An application for an additional award for violation of a specific safety requirement, and the time to file it
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of September 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Ohio attorney.