Mays Law Office · Updated October 2026

For a compensable Green Bay work injury, Wisconsin workers’ compensation pays reasonable and necessary medical treatment with no waiting period. Wage benefits start after a three-day waiting period that skips Sundays unless you normally work them, and those days are paid too if the disability lasts beyond seven calendar days or is permanent. Notify your employer within 30 days.

Green Bay is one of the seven cities where the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) holds workers’ compensation hearings. If your claim was denied, your checks stopped or came up short, or the insurer wants its own doctor to examine you, call 608-305-4518 for a free consultation.

Work and Injuries in Brown County

Manufacturing is Brown County’s largest private-sector industry. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2025 county employment figures, it averaged 29,386 jobs, 20.5 percent of the county’s 143,373 private-sector jobs and about one in five, above manufacturing’s 17.9 percent share statewide. Health care and social assistance followed with 24,451 jobs (17.1 percent), then retail trade with 15,414 (10.8 percent), accommodation and food services with 12,684 (8.8 percent) and construction with 8,299 (5.8 percent).

Two kinds of manufacturing stand out in the same BLS figures: food manufacturing averaged 7,951 jobs, 4,104 of them in animal slaughtering and processing, which covers meat and poultry processing, and paper manufacturing averaged 5,370, including 2,720 at pulp, paper and paperboard mills and 2,649 in converted paper products. Together, food and paper hold about 45 percent of the county’s manufacturing jobs.

Brown County at a glance

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Brown County annual averages for 2025; shares are of the county’s 143,373 private-sector jobs.

The Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey looks at residents rather than jobs, sorting them by the kind of work they do wherever they work. In the city, 12.7 percent of Green Bay’s 54,962 employed residents hold production jobs, about one in eight, against 9.2 percent of employed Wisconsin residents; 9.3 percent work in transportation and material moving (8.1 percent statewide) and 9.4 percent in health care as practitioners, technicians or support staff. Countywide, among 142,941 employed residents, the same three shares are 9.8, 7.9 and 10.3 percent.

Each line of work leaves its own kind of claim. On meat and poultry lines, cutting, trimming and lifting all shift can wear down hands, wrists, elbows and shoulders, while knives, saws and wet floors add cuts, amputations and falls. Paper mills and converting plants bring caught-in injuries at rollers and other moving machinery, burns, chemical exposure and hearing lost to years of noise. Health care workers hurt backs and shoulders moving patients, drivers and warehouse crews are injured loading trucks and falling from docks, and construction, retail and restaurant work produce falls, cuts, burns and strains.

Wisconsin’s system is no-fault, and DWD’s guide for injured workers says benefits generally must be paid even if the injury was your fault; two central requirements are that the injury arose out of your employment and happened in the course of it (Wis. Stat. § 102.03(1)). Under Wis. Stat. § 102.58, though, certain failures to use required safety devices or to obey a reasonable safety rule can cut 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, while medical treatment is still paid. DWD also lists three situations in which an injured worker does not have a right to benefits: the worker injured himself or herself intentionally, the worker was injured while voluntarily participating in an off-duty activity, or the injury occurred during horseplay or fighting initiated by the injured worker.

Spanish is part of daily life in many Green Bay homes. The same Census Bureau survey finds that 11.8 percent of city residents age 5 and older speak Spanish at home, more than twice Wisconsin’s 4.9 percent, and that 5.6 percent speak Spanish at home and English less than “very well” (1.9 percent statewide); countywide, the share speaking Spanish at home is 6.6 percent. Nearly one in five Green Bay residents, 18.8 percent, is Hispanic or Latino, against 8 percent statewide. If English is hard for you, Wisconsin law lets you bring your own translator to an exam the insurer requests, DWD publishes its injured-worker guide in Spanish, and se habla español at our office.

If you belong to a union, your local is another resource; the Wisconsin AFL-CIO lists the Greater Green Bay Area Labor Council for this area.

If a Green Bay Claim Is Disputed

The insurer is on a clock from the start. DWD’s guide for injured workers (WKC-18-P) says an insurer that is still investigating must notify you within 14 days after it receives notice of the injury, and one that denies the claim must tell you within 7 days of its decision and advise you of your right to a hearing. Since January 1, 2026, under 2025 Wisconsin Act 33, contested claims are decided by administrative law judges in DWD’s own Worker’s Compensation Division.

What comes next depends on whether you have a lawyer. DWD says a worker who has not retained an attorney starts in an informal process: staff in the Division’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit review the disputed issues and the medical support, and contact you and the insurer if they believe the dispute can be resolved without a formal hearing. A formal hearing requires a hearing application (Form WKC-7) with a supporting medical report, usually on Form WKC-16-B; a worker without a lawyer goes through that informal process first, and a represented worker’s lawyer must also file a Certification of Readiness before DWD schedules the hearing. Certain unrepresented workers also get a pre-hearing conference with an administrative law judge to narrow the issues and explain how the hearing works.

Any party may ask DWD to schedule a mediation conference, conducted by an administrative law judge, to discuss a mutually agreeable resolution without a formal hearing; DWD may schedule it once all the other parties confirm their agreement in writing, and what is said there is confidential, with listed exceptions (Wis. Admin. Code § DWD 80.16). Many hearing requests settle before a formal hearing, and DWD must approve every compromise settlement.

DWD sets the place of any hearing. It states that hearings are generally held near the municipality of the applicant’s residence, and it holds them at seven locations: Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Eau Claire, Green Bay, La Crosse and Wausau. In Green Bay, DWD lists its location at 200 N. Jefferson St., 6th Floor, Room 622, Green Bay, WI 54301. Each party is served or mailed notice of the date, time and place at least 10 days ahead (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(1)(a)), and DWD schedules hearings only by written letter.

Two timing rules apply once you file. The application stops the statute-of-limitations clock while the case is pending, though never past the later of the case’s final disposition or the date the period would otherwise have ended, and the clock keeps running after an order dismissing the application without prejudice, so the deadline may already have passed (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(a)1). A party who disagrees with the judge’s decision can petition the Labor and Industry Review Commission, which DWD or the commission must receive within 21 days after DWD mails the decision (Wis. Stat. § 102.18(3)); review in circuit court of the commission’s order then takes a summons and complaint, filed and served within 30 days of that order (Wis. Stat. § 102.23(1)(a)).

Green Bay Workers’ Comp Questions

Is there a workers’ comp hearing location in Green Bay?

Yes. Green Bay is one of the seven places where DWD holds workers’ compensation hearings, and DWD lists its Green Bay location at 200 N. Jefferson St., 6th Floor, Room 622, Green Bay, WI 54301; the others are in Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Eau Claire, La Crosse and Wausau. DWD states that hearings are generally held near the municipality of the applicant’s residence, and each case’s written notice gives the date, time and place at least 10 days ahead. DWD schedules hearings only by written letter, so check with its Worker’s Compensation Division before acting on a call, text or email that claims to set a hearing.

I work on a meat or poultry processing line in Brown County, and my hands and wrists hurt after every shift. Is that covered?

It can be. A condition that develops from repeated cutting, trimming or packing is generally treated as an occupational disease; DWD’s guide names carpal tunnel syndrome as one example. For a disease, the date of injury is the date of disability or, if that date comes after all the employment that contributed to the disability has ended, the last day of work for the last employer whose employment caused it (Wis. Stat. § 102.01(2)(g)2). Report the condition to your employer within 30 days after you knew or ought to have known its nature and relation to your work, and tell each practitioner you see exactly what your job involves.

I think chemicals I worked around at a Brown County mill or plant made me sick. Can that be a workers’ comp claim?

It can be. Wisconsin law covers mental or physical harm caused by accident or disease (Wis. Stat. § 102.01(2)(c)), and an illness caused by exposure at work can be an occupational disease. DWD’s guide tells workers who become ill from what they think is work-related exposure to report it to a supervisor immediately and get medical attention. A disputed claim needs medical proof, a practitioner’s written opinion. Certified reports by physicians, physician assistants, advanced practice registered nurses, podiatrists, surgeons, psychologists and chiropractors are admissible as evidence of the diagnosis, the necessity of treatment, and the cause and extent of the disability; a dentist’s certified report is admissible as evidence of the diagnosis and the necessity of treatment only (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(1)(d), as amended by 2025 Wisconsin Act 145). Write down the chemicals, products and work areas involved, with dates, for the practitioner treating you.

My English is limited. Can I bring my own translator to the insurer’s medical exam?

Yes. If you have difficulty speaking or understanding English, Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(b) lets you have a translator you provide present at the examination, and the insurer’s written request for the exam must tell you about that right. Do attend an exam the insurer properly requests in writing: as long as you refuse to submit to it or obstruct it, your right to begin or maintain any proceeding to collect compensation is suspended, and if you keep refusing or obstructing it after DWD or an examiner directs you to attend, you lose the right to the weekly indemnity that accrues during that time; this does not by itself end the claim. For its part, the insurer must pay your necessary expenses, including transportation, before the exam. DWD publishes its guide for injured workers in Spanish, and se habla español at Mays Law Office.

The insurer wants to settle my claim. What should I know before I sign?

In Wisconsin a workers’ comp settlement is called a compromise, reached by signing a written agreement or by putting it on the record at a hearing. DWD’s guide says every compromise must be approved by the Worker’s Compensation Division to make sure it is reasonable, that you should understand what future benefits you may be giving up before you sign, and that a compromise is legally very difficult to change afterward; frequently, nothing more is paid beyond its amount. Settlement is common: DWD reports that about 80 percent of hearing requests settle without a formal hearing being held. Have the offer reviewed before you sign it.

What Workers’ Compensation Pays, and When

Weekly maximums follow the date of injury (DWD rate chart WKC-9572-P):

• Temporary total disability: two-thirds of your average weekly wage when the compensable injury keeps you from earning wages during the healing period, up to $1,326 a week for 2025 injuries and $1,375 for 2026 injuries.
• Permanent partial disability: up to $446 a week for injuries from January 1, 2025 through March 31, 2026, $454 for injuries from April 1 through December 31, 2026, and $462 for injuries on or after January 1, 2027 (2025 Wisconsin Act 145; Wis. Stat. § 102.11(1)).
• Medical care: reasonable and necessary treatment for the compensable injury from a treating practitioner licensed and practicing in Wisconsin whom you choose — a physician, chiropractor, psychologist, dentist, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse or podiatrist — plus a second choice on notice to your employer or its insurer; a practitioner not licensed in Wisconsin takes mutual agreement or a Wisconsin-licensed practitioner’s referral, and in an emergency your employer may arrange treatment until you can choose (Wis. Stat. § 102.42(2)(a); DWD WKC-18-P).

Deadlines:

• Notice: tell your employer within 30 days after the injury, or after you knew or ought to have known the nature of the disability and its relation to your work; a late notice does not bar the claim if the employer was not misled (Wis. Stat. § 102.12).
• Six years for most traumatic injuries on or after March 2, 2016, from the date of injury, the last payment of compensation other than treatment or burial expenses, or the date compensation would have been last payable if no advancement were made, whichever is latest (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(a)).
• The two-year bar beside it: 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 that knew-or-ought-to-have-known date, compensation is barred unless your employer knew or should have known of the injury within that time (Wis. Stat. § 102.12).
• No statute of limitations for occupational disease or for loss or total impairment of a hand or any part of the arm proximal to the hand, or a foot or any part of the leg proximal to the foot, any loss of vision, or a permanent brain injury; or an injury requiring an artificial spinal disc, a total or partial knee or hip replacement, a shoulder replacement or a reverse shoulder replacement (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(b)); the two-year bar applies to these claims too: § 102.17(4) removes the limitation period in these cases, but the two-year bar in § 102.12 is a separate rule, which can bar a claim when no application was filed in time and the employer neither knew nor should have known of the injury.

An insurer that wants its own practitioner to examine you must ask in writing and pay your necessary expenses, transportation included, in advance; refusing a proper request or obstructing the exam suspends your right to begin or maintain any proceeding to collect compensation while the refusal lasts, and if you keep refusing or obstructing it after DWD or an examiner directs you to attend, your right to the weekly indemnity that accrues during that time is barred, though this does not by itself end the claim; you may bring your own practitioner, one observer and, if English is difficult for you, your own translator (Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(b)–(c)). Lawyer fees are generally capped at 20 percent of the disputed amount that is awarded or collected, or 10 percent, up to $250, when liability is admitted, nothing is disputed and no hearing or appeal is needed; DWD approves the fee (Wis. Stat. § 102.26(2)), and litigation costs, such as charges for medical reports, are separate. More in our guides: filing a claim, after a denial, attorney fees and serious injuries.

Who Handles Your Green Bay Claim

Your claim is handled by Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays, who has represented injured workers for more than 25 years. Admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1995, the same year she graduated cum laude from Thomas M. Cooley Law School with her J.D., she served from 2001 to 2025 on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Association of Worker’s Compensation Attorneys for District 7. Learn more about Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays and the firm’s Wisconsin workers’ compensation practice.

Mays Law Office represents injured workers across Wisconsin from its office in Middleton, Green Bay and Brown County included. The first conversation is a phone call: 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 Green Bay

Nearby communities have pages of their own:

• workers’ compensation claims in De Pere
• workers’ compensation claims in Kaukauna
• injured workers in Appleton
• Menasha workers’ comp help

Two guides go further, for workers who don’t speak English and for a denied claim:

• hurt at work and don’t speak English
• what to do if your workers’ comp claim is denied