Mays Law Office · Updated October 2026

Wisconsin workers’ comp gives a Prairie du Chien worker with a compensable injury reasonable and necessary medical care, with no waiting period. If you can’t work, wage benefits follow a three-day wait (Sundays excluded unless you normally work them); those days are paid after more than seven days off or a permanent disability. Tell your employer promptly, within 30 days.

The 30 days run from the injury or from when you knew or ought to have known the nature of the disability and its relation to your work, and late notice does not bar recovery if your employer was not misled by it (Wis. Stat. § 102.12). If the insurer has turned the claim down, stopped or cut your checks, or booked an exam with a doctor it picked, call 608-305-4518 for a free consultation.

Work and Injuries in Crawford County

Prairie du Chien is the seat of Crawford County, which had 6,560 jobs in 2025 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ county employment figures, 5,454 of them with private employers. Manufacturing is the largest private sector with a published county total: 1,161 jobs, or 21.3 percent of private employment, against 17.9 percent statewide. Retail trade nearly matches it at 1,084 jobs, or 19.9 percent, compared with retail’s 11.5 percent share of Wisconsin’s private jobs, and general merchandise retailers alone account for 440 of them.

Accommodation and food services, which includes hotels, restaurants and bars, adds 697 jobs (12.8 percent, against 9.4 percent statewide), transportation and warehousing 494 (9.1 percent) and finance and insurance 144 (2.6 percent). BLS withheld six sectors’ county totals to protect individual employers, health care and social assistance and agriculture among them, so the table ranks the five largest sectors with published totals.

Crawford County at a glance

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Crawford County annual averages for 2025; shares are of 5,454 private-sector jobs.

The Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey shows what residents do for a living, wherever they work, and because Prairie du Chien’s own sample is small, these are Crawford County figures for 6,861 employed residents. Production (10.8 percent) and transportation and material moving (9.9 percent) together employ about one in five, against 17.3 percent statewide. Construction and extraction workers make up 8.0 percent, well above Wisconsin’s 4.5 percent; farming, fishing and forestry workers 2.3 percent, against 0.8 percent; and health care practitioners, technologists and support workers 9.9 percent, near the state’s 10.1 percent.

Each line of work has its own injuries. Factory machines catch, crush or cut fingers and hands, flying debris strikes eyes and faces, and repetitive gripping, lifting and loud equipment wear on wrists, shoulders, backs and hearing. Stocking freight strains backs and shoulders, ladders bring falls, and kitchen and hotel work adds burns, knife cuts and slick floors. Drivers and warehouse crews are hurt in crashes and in falls from docks and trailers, construction workers fall from roofs and scaffolds, nursing-home and home-care aides hurt their backs lifting the people they care for, and farm hands face kicking livestock, tractor rollovers and machinery that catches a sleeve or a hand.

None of these claims requires proving that someone was careless. The Department of Workforce Development (DWD) says on its Worker Resources page that an injured worker may receive benefits regardless of who caused or helped cause the injury, but not for an intentional self-injury, horseplay or fighting the injured worker started, or an injury during voluntary, unpaid participation in a program, event or activity designed to improve physical well-being (DWD’s shorthand is an “off-duty activity”; Wis. Stat. § 102.03(1)(c)3). Conduct can also cut benefits under Wis. Stat. § 102.58: a failure to use required safety devices or to follow a reasonable, enforced safety rule you had notice of reduces compensation and death benefits 15 percent, up to $15,000, and a violation of the employer’s drug or alcohol policy that was causal to the injury bars compensation and death benefits, though medical treatment stays payable.

If a Prairie du Chien Claim Is Disputed

A disputed Prairie du Chien claim is decided first by DWD, not by a court. 2025 Wisconsin Act 33 moved contested workers’ compensation cases from the Department of Administration’s Division of Hearings and Appeals to DWD’s Worker’s Compensation Division on January 1, 2026, and the division’s administrative law judges now hear and decide them.

Without a lawyer, your claim first goes through DWD’s informal process: staff of its Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit identify the disputed issues, check that the medical information supports the claim and contact you and the insurer if the dispute looks resolvable without a formal hearing. If that does not resolve it, you may request a formal hearing by filing Form WKC-7 with a medical report supporting the claim, usually a practitioner’s Form WKC-16-B, and DWD schedules no hearing until that report is in; a represented worker’s lawyer must also file a Certification of Readiness first.

Any party may ask DWD to schedule a mediation conference to discuss a mutually agreeable resolution without a formal hearing; DWD may schedule it once the other parties confirm in writing that they agree, and an administrative law judge conducts it (Wis. Admin. Code § DWD 80.16). By DWD’s count, about 80 percent of hearing requests are settled without a formal hearing. A compromise needs DWD’s approval, can give up some or all future benefits under its written terms, and is legally very difficult to change once you agree, DWD’s guide warns.

DWD states that hearings are generally held near the municipality of the applicant’s residence; of its seven hearing locations, in Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Eau Claire, Green Bay, La Crosse and Wausau, the closest to Prairie du Chien is the La Crosse Hearing Office, 3550 Mormon Coulee Rd, La Crosse, WI 54601. DWD’s written notice, served or mailed to each party at least 10 days ahead, sets the actual place (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(1)(a)2), and since the Worker’s Compensation Division schedules hearings only through written letter, check any call, text or email about a hearing with the division first.

Filing the hearing application keeps an unexpired limitation period from running out while the case is pending, but never past the later of the final disposition or the date the period would otherwise have ended, and the period runs again after an order dismissing the application without prejudice (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(a)1). To challenge the judge’s decision, a party petitions the Labor and Industry Review Commission, and DWD or the commission must receive the petition within 21 days after DWD mails the decision; a late petition is dismissed unless the petitioner shows it was filed late for a reason beyond the petitioner’s control (Wis. Stat. § 102.18(3)). Within 30 days of the commission’s order, an aggrieved party may begin a circuit court action by serving the complaint as the statute requires and filing the summons and complaint with the clerk of the circuit court, naming the commission and every party the commission identifies as defendants; a party prejudiced by an exceptional delay in receiving the order may get 30 more days (Wis. Stat. § 102.23(1)(a)2). A worker living in Prairie du Chien who brings that action files it in the Crawford County circuit court unless all parties stipulate to another court and that court agrees (§ 102.23(1)(a)3).

Prairie du Chien Workers’ Comp Questions

My Prairie du Chien job sometimes takes me across the river into Iowa. Does Wisconsin workers’ comp still cover me if I’m hurt on the Iowa side?

It can, depending on where the job is based. Under Wis. Stat. § 102.03(5), a worker hurt while working outside Wisconsin, in a way that would have been covered here, receives Wisconsin benefits if the employment is principally localized in Wisconsin when the injury happens. Benefits also reach a worker under a contract of hire made in Wisconsin whose employment is not principally localized in any state, or is principally localized in a state whose workers’ compensation law does not apply to the employer. Note where you were hired, where you normally report and why you were in Iowa that day; we can tell you whether Wisconsin’s law reaches your injury.

I work on a Crawford County farm only at planting and harvest time. Does workers’ compensation cover me?

It depends on the farm’s whole calendar year, not your hours, though a smaller farm may have elected coverage anyway (Wis. Stat. § 102.04(1)(e)), and a farm that had to insure but did not leaves you a claim through Wisconsin’s uninsured employers fund (§ 102.81). A farm that has come under the law stays covered until it files a withdrawal notice with DWD, which it may do only if neither the current nor the previous calendar year reached the threshold; the withdrawal takes effect 30 days later (Wis. Stat. § 102.05(1)(b)2). Farms have no payroll test: the law applies to a farm 10 days after the twentieth day in a calendar year on which it employed 6 or more employees (Wis. Stat. § 102.04(1)(c)), and DWD says those days need not be consecutive and the 6 may be part-time or different people each day. Labor exchanged with other farmers is not counted (§ 102.07(5)(a)), nor, on a farm run as a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company or family farm corporation, are listed relatives such as the farmer’s parent, spouse, child, sibling or in-law. Once a farm is covered, its employees are covered, those relatives included, subject to the law’s own exclusions.

My doctor says part of my work injury is permanent. Does workers’ comp pay anything beyond medical bills and lost wages?

Yes. Once you have healed as much as possible, your practitioner determines whether a permanent disability remains, and permanent partial disability is then paid monthly, at two-thirds of your average weekly wage up to your injury date’s maximum. An arm or leg is rated as a percentage at the joint and paid that share of the joint’s weeks under Wis. Stat. § 102.52: by DWD’s example, 10 percent at the shoulder is 50 of 500 weeks. Head, neck and torso injuries are rated against the body as a whole, as a share of 1,000 weeks (§ 102.44(3)), and may also support a loss-of-earning-capacity claim, except when you are back working for the employer you had when you were hurt and your actual wage loss is under 15 percent — a bar that lifts, within the limitation period, if the employer ends that job, if you leave it because your limitations prevent you from continuing, or if your wage loss reaches 15 percent (§ 102.44(6)(a)).

The insurer’s doctor is 100 miles or more from my Prairie du Chien home. Must I go to the exam?

Not necessarily. Normally you must attend a reasonable exam the employer or insurer requests in writing with the notice Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(b) requires; refusing or obstructing it suspends your right to begin or maintain a compensation proceeding while the refusal lasts, and refusing after DWD or an administrative law judge directs you to go, or obstructing the exam, bars the weekly benefits accruing meanwhile, though the claim itself does not end (§ 102.13(1)(c)). Neither consequence applies if you refuse a physical exam requiring travel of 100 miles or more from your residence, unless you have claimed compensation for treatment from a practitioner whose office is that far away or DWD or the judge finds other circumstances warrant the exam (§ 102.13(4)).

What Workers’ Compensation Pays, and When

Maximums by date of injury (DWD rate chart WKC-9572-P):

• Temporary total disability: two-thirds of your average weekly wage while a compensable injury keeps you off work during healing, up to $1,326 a week for 2025 injuries and $1,375 for 2026 injuries.
• Permanent partial disability: capped at $446 a week for injuries from January 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026, at $454 for injuries from April 1 through December 31, 2026, and at $462 for injuries on or after January 1, 2027 (2025 Wisconsin Act 145).
• Medical care: reasonable and necessary treatment of a compensable injury, with no waiting period, by a practitioner you choose once your employer has notice of the injury and its relation to your work: a physician, chiropractor, psychologist, dentist, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse or podiatrist licensed to practice and practicing in Wisconsin, with a second choice on notice to your employer or its insurer. One licensed only in Iowa takes mutual agreement or, per DWD’s guide, a Wisconsin practitioner’s referral, and in an emergency the employer may arrange care first (Wis. Stat. § 102.42(2)(a)).

Time limits:

• Six years for most traumatic injuries on or after March 2, 2016, from the latest of the injury, the last payment of compensation other than for treatment or burial, or the date compensation would have been last payable if no advancement were made (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(a)).
• No statute of limitations covers occupational disease or the serious traumatic injuries that Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(b) lists, among them any loss of vision, any permanent brain injury and an injury requiring a total or partial knee or hip replacement or, since the statute’s 2026 amendment, a shoulder or reverse shoulder replacement.
• A two-year bar applies alongside both: if nothing beyond medical or burial expenses has been paid and no application is filed with DWD within two years of the injury, or of when you knew or ought to have known its nature and relation to your work, compensation is barred unless your employer knew or should have known of the injury within those two years (Wis. Stat. § 102.12).

For an exam the insurer requests, it must tender your necessary expenses, including transportation, beforehand; you may bring your own practitioner, one observer and, if English is difficult for you, a translator you provide, and you get copies of the reports (Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(b)). A lawyer’s fee is generally capped at 20 percent of the disputed amount awarded, settled or collected, or 10 percent, up to $250, when liability is admitted, the amount is undisputed and no hearing or appeal is needed; DWD approves fees, and costs such as medical-report charges can be billed separately (Wis. Stat. § 102.26(2); DWD WKC-7 instructions). See our guides to filing a claim, a denied claim, attorney fees and serious work injuries.

Who Handles Your Prairie du Chien Claim

Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays has represented injured workers for more than 25 years; her biography on the firm’s site says she concentrates her practice in workers’ compensation for the Wisconsin injured worker and is directly involved from start to finish. She earned her J.D. at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1995, graduating cum laude, was admitted to the Wisconsin bar that same year, and from 2001 to 2025 held a District 7 seat on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Association of Worker’s Compensation Attorneys. More is on the Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays page and our Wisconsin workers’ compensation practice page.

From its office in Middleton, Mays Law Office represents injured workers across Wisconsin, Crawford County included. Call 608-305-4518 or use our contact page; the office takes your information, and Attorney Mays calls you back for a free consultation. Se habla español.

Workers’ Comp Help Near Prairie du Chien

If you live or work in another southwestern Wisconsin community, its own page is a good place to start:

• workers’ compensation claims in Lancaster
• workers’ compensation claims in Viroqua
• injured workers in Platteville
• Richland Center workers’ comp help

For the paperwork side, two of our guides go through filing a claim and answering a denial:

• what to do if your workers’ comp claim is denied
• how to file a workers’ compensation claim in Wisconsin