If you were hurt on the job in Green Bay, Wisconsin law is supposed to cover your medical care and replace part of the wages you lose while you heal. On paper that sounds straightforward. In practice, an injured worker in Brown County usually finds that nothing about the process is automatic. The clock starts running the day you’re hurt, the insurer investigates before it commits to anything, and when a denial lands it comes with a written reason that rarely tells the whole story. Understanding how the system works — and exactly what it owes you — is what separates a claim that pays from one that drags on.

Mays Law Office represents injured workers across Wisconsin from our office in Middleton. We take on the paperwork, the disputes, and the hearings so you can concentrate on getting better. Call 608-305-4518 for a free consultation before you accept a denial or sign anything the insurer puts in front of you.

Workers’ Compensation Attorneys in Green Bay, WI

Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays has focused on Wisconsin workers’ compensation for more than 25 years. She was admitted to the Wisconsin bar in 1995 and earned her J.D. from Thomas M. Cooley Law School cum laude. She served on the Wisconsin Association of Workers’ Compensation Attorneys Board of Directors for District 7 from 2001 to 2025 — a long-standing role at the center of the state’s workers’ compensation bar.

That background matters because a workers’ compensation claim is a legal proceeding, not a form you fill out. Whether your wage benefits are figured correctly, whether a lasting impairment is properly rated, and whether a denial holds up all come down to details the insurer has no obligation to explain to you. Those are the questions we start asking at the first phone call.

When to Call a Workers’ Comp Lawyer

Call us right away if any of the following applies to you:

• Your claim was denied, or the insurer says your injury didn’t happen at work.
• Wage-replacement checks stopped, are late, or are smaller than they should be.
• The insurer wants you seen by its own doctor for an “independent” medical examination.
• You have a permanent restriction and can’t go back to your old job.
• You were pushed to settle before you know the full extent of your injury.
• Your injury built up over time — a repetitive-strain or exposure condition — and the insurer disputes that work caused it.
• You’re being pressured to treat with a doctor you didn’t choose.

What Workers’ Compensation Pays in Wisconsin

Wisconsin workers’ compensation replaces lost wages and pays for treatment. The benefit types break down like this:

• Temporary Total Disability (TTD). Paid while you heal and cannot work. Rate is two-thirds of your average weekly wage. The 2025 maximum is $1,254 per week. For injuries on or after January 1, 2026, it is $1,299 per week.
• Temporary Partial Disability (TPD). For lighter or reduced-hour work that pays less. It covers a portion of the wage difference.
• Permanent Partial Disability (PPD). For lasting impairment. Scheduled injuries — arms, hands, legs, feet, vision, hearing — pay a percentage of set statutory weeks. Unscheduled injuries — back, spine, head — use a whole-person or earning-capacity measure against a 1,000-week base. The maximum PPD rate is $446 per week in 2025. It rises to $454 per week effective April 1, 2026.
• Permanent Total Disability (PTD). For an injury that ends all gainful work. It pays at the TTD rate for life.
• Death benefits. Available to eligible dependents, generally capped at four times the worker’s average annual wage. Burial costs are covered up to $10,000.
• Medical expenses. Reasonable, necessary treatment is fully covered. Mileage to appointments is reimbursed at 51 cents per mile.

Every figure above is set by statute. Some rates change by injury year.

Deadlines That Can Make or Break Your Claim

Deadlines drive workers’ compensation claims. Miss one and you can lose rights. Here is the timeline:

• Report the injury: 30 days. Tell your employer within 30 days. A late report can be excused only if the employer knew — or reasonably should have known — of the injury, and cannot show it was significantly misled or disadvantaged by the delay.
• Statute of limitations — traumatic injury: 6 years. This covers a single-event injury (for injuries on or after March 2, 2016). It runs from the injury or the last indemnity payment.
• Statute of limitations — occupational disease: 12 years. This covers conditions that build over time. Each indemnity payment resets the clock.
• Waiting period: 3 days (Sundays excluded unless you normally work them). Wage benefits start after it runs. The first three days are unpaid at first.
• Retroactive rule: 7 days. If disability lasts beyond seven calendar days, those first three days get paid back.
• First payment. DWD’s performance standard expects insurers to pay 80 percent of first indemnity payments within 14 days of injury or last day worked; statutory late-payment penalties apply separately.

The basic flow is short. You report the injury. The insurer investigates. It pays or it denies. A dispute goes to a hearing.

Workers’ Comp in Green Bay: Local Reality

Green Bay is the seat of Brown County, and the kinds of injuries that land in the workers’ compensation system here track closely with the work that gets done. Brown County supports a large base of physically demanding jobs: federal labor data for the Green Bay area shows production occupations making up roughly 12 percent of the local workforce, transportation and material-moving work about 10 percent, and healthcare practitioners and support another 11 percent. That industrial and logistical mix carries real risk.

Paper and converting mills expose workers to serious hazards: “caught-in/between” accidents involving massive, fast-moving paper rollers, crushing injuries, chemical burns from pulping, exposure to toxic gases, and combustible-dust dangers. Processing and production lines can bring repetitive-stress injuries, cold-stress conditions, and severe lacerations. Warehouse and material-handling work adds heavy-lifting strains, musculoskeletal injuries, and dock accidents. Healthcare work brings its own profile — patient-handling back injuries, lumbar strains, and slip-and-falls in clinical settings. Many of these are not single-event injuries at all but conditions that build over months and years, and insurers may dispute occupational-disease and repetitive-stress claims, especially when causation is contested.

If a Green Bay worker’s claim is denied or disputed, it moves into Wisconsin’s formal hearing system — and that system changed at the start of 2026. Since January 1, 2026, workers’ compensation hearings are handled by the Worker’s Compensation Division within the Department of Workforce Development, which reunited claim administration and adjudication under one agency. That reorganization kept the state’s regional hearing access in place. Green Bay has its own DWD hearing office, so Brown County workers are heard locally rather than being sent to Milwaukee or Madison. An administrative law judge runs a mediation program to try to resolve cases before a formal hearing becomes necessary.

How Wisconsin Workers’ Comp Hearings Work Now

Insurers deny claims for many reasons. The most common grounds:

• The injury did not arise out of employment.
• The injury was directly caused by violating the employer’s drug or alcohol policy.
• A willful failure to use a required safety device or follow a reasonable safety rule — if the employer proves it, wage-replacement benefits (not medical coverage) drop 15 percent, capped at $15,000.

Denied? A written denial must state the reason. It must also explain your hearing right. The path forward:

• File Form WKC-7. This Hearing Application starts your challenge. It also pauses the statute of limitations while your case is pending.
• Mediation. The Worker’s Compensation Division at DWD runs it (hearings moved there January 1, 2026). Administrative law judges try to settle early.
• Hearing. If mediation fails, a formal hearing follows. Witnesses testify under oath and face cross-examination.
• LIRC appeal: 21 days. Petition the Labor and Industry Review Commission within 21 days. A LIRC ruling can then reach circuit court.

Two rights hold throughout. You may pick your own treating doctor (subject to the statute’s limits on the number of free choices). The insurer may order an Independent Medical Examination — but it pays your wages and mileage and gives you the report. These are rights the law grants. They are not a promise of any outcome.

That last point is where cases are often won or lost. An insurer’s “independent” examiner may rate your impairment lower than your own doctor does, or blame your injury on something other than work. When your doctor and the insurer’s doctor disagree, the dispute is resolved through the hearing process — and building that record correctly is exactly what our Wisconsin workers’ compensation practice is built to do.

Green Bay Workers’ Comp Questions We Hear Most

How much does workers’ compensation pay?

For time missed while you heal, Temporary Total Disability pays two-thirds of your average weekly wage, up to a maximum that varies by injury year — $1,254 per week for 2025 injuries and $1,299 per week for injuries on or after January 1, 2026. Permanent Partial Disability has its own maximum: $446 per week in 2025, rising to $454 per week effective April 1, 2026. Reasonable and necessary medical care is covered in full, with mileage reimbursed at 51 cents per mile.

Can my employer refuse to take me back after a claim?

Wisconsin gives injured workers a specific protection here. Under Wis. Stat. § 102.35(3), if an employer unreasonably refuses to rehire an injured worker when suitable work is available within their physical and mental limitations, the employer — not the insurer — can be ordered to pay the worker’s lost wages during the refusal, up to a maximum of one year’s wages.

Are undocumented workers covered?

Under Wisconsin’s primary authority, yes, for the core benefits. The statute defines an employee as “every person in the service of another under any contract of hire” and makes no reference to citizenship or immigration status. Undocumented workers who are injured on the job are entitled to medical treatment, Temporary Total Disability during healing, and Permanent Partial Disability compensation. They are, however, restricted from state-sponsored vocational retraining programs.

How long do I have to file?

That depends on the type of injury. A single-event traumatic injury carries a six-year statute of limitations (for injuries on or after March 2, 2016). An occupational disease that develops over time carries twelve years. Both periods run from the date of injury or from the last indemnity payment — and each indemnity payment you receive resets the clock. Separately, you must report a work injury to your employer within 30 days.

Where would my Green Bay hearing be held?

Locally. Green Bay has its own state hearing office, so a disputed claim from Brown County is heard here rather than being routed to Milwaukee or Madison. This matters in a paper, packaging, and food-processing city like Green Bay, where occupational and repetitive-stress claims are common and often contested. Since January 1, 2026, these hearings are run by the Worker’s Compensation Division at the Department of Workforce Development, and an administrative law judge will typically attempt mediation before any formal hearing.

Get a Free Consultation

Se Habla Español — Call 608-305-4518

Whether your claim was just denied or you’re still fighting to get the first check, the sooner you understand your rights, the stronger your position. Call 608-305-4518 or contact Mays Law Office online for a free consultation. We represent injured workers across Wisconsin, including Green Bay and Brown County, from our office at Mays Law Office, LLC — 6405 Century Ave STE 103, Middleton, WI 53562.