Mays Law Office · Updated October 2026

Hurt on the job in Lancaster? Wisconsin workers’ compensation covers reasonable medical care for a compensable work injury from day one. Wage benefits start after a three-day wait (Sundays excluded unless you normally work them), with those days paid if you are off more than seven days or left with permanent disability. Report it to your employer within 30 days.

The 30-day rule has an exception, since a late report does not bar the claim if your employer was not misled by the delay (Wis. Stat. § 102.12), but reporting on time keeps that question out of your case. This page covers the work and injuries of Grant County, the rules for farm jobs, how a disputed Lancaster claim moves through the Department of Workforce Development (DWD), and the benefits and deadlines that apply. If the insurer has denied your claim, stopped or shorted your checks, or scheduled an exam with a doctor it chose, call 608-305-4518 for a free consultation.

Work and Injuries in Grant County

The figures here cover Grant County as a whole, Lancaster included. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 2025 county employment figures, private employers in the county averaged 13,239 jobs, and government employers accounted for the other 3,913 of its 17,152 jobs. Of the private sectors BLS published, retail trade was the largest, with 2,373 jobs, or 17.9 percent of private employment. Manufacturing was close behind at 2,240 jobs (16.9 percent), slightly below the 17.9 percent share manufacturing holds of Wisconsin’s private jobs in the same data. BLS withheld the county’s 2025 figures for six sectors, among them health care and social assistance, agriculture, and transportation and warehousing, to protect the confidentiality of individual employers, so those sectors are not ranked here.

Grant County at a glance

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, Grant County annual averages for 2025; each share is of the county’s 13,239 private-sector jobs.

Job counts show where the work is located. The Census Bureau’s 2020–2024 American Community Survey shows what Grant County’s 25,827 employed residents do, wherever their jobs are: 10.2 percent hold production jobs and 9.3 percent work in transportation and material moving, both above the Wisconsin shares of 9.2 and 8.1 percent. Health care practitioners, technicians and support workers make up 8.7 percent, a little below Wisconsin’s 10.1 percent, and construction and extraction workers 4.9 percent. Farming, fishing and forestry occupations account for 2.7 percent of the county’s working residents, compared with 0.8 percent statewide.

Those jobs carry their own risks. Stocking shelves and unloading freight lead to lifting strains and falls, and restaurant and kitchen work adds burns, cuts and slips. Production lines bring machine injuries and repetitive-motion conditions in the hands, wrists and shoulders, and years around loud equipment can take a toll on hearing. Construction crews face falls, struck-by injuries and overexertion, and drivers face vehicle and loading injuries. Farm work adds injuries from handling livestock, from tractors and other machinery, and from falls off equipment.

A claim for any of these injuries does not require proving that anyone was careless; the central questions are whether you were a covered employee and whether the injury both arose out of your employment and occurred in the course of it (Wis. Stat. § 102.03(1)). Conduct can still affect benefits under Wis. Stat. § 102.58: failing to use legally required safety devices that the employer maintains and reasonably enforces, or to obey a reasonable safety rule the employer adopted and enforces and you had notice of, can reduce compensation and death benefits by 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 the employer remains liable for medical treatment.

Farm jobs come under the law by a separate test. Most Wisconsin employers must have insurance on the day they employ a third person; one with fewer employees that pays $500 or more in wages in a calendar quarter needs it by the 10th day of the next quarter’s first month (Wis. Stat. § 102.04(1)(b)). Neither rule applies to farmers or farm labor. For a farm, the test is 6 or more employees on 20 days in a calendar year (Wis. Stat. § 102.04(1)(c)), as the first question below explains, though a smaller farm may have chosen to come under the law (Wis. Stat. § 102.04(1)(e)). DWD adds that a business working for farmers, such as a silo-filling contractor, is subject to the law like any other non-farm employer.

If a Lancaster Claim Is Disputed

If a Lancaster claim is disputed, the first decision-maker is an administrative law judge at DWD, not a court. 2025 Wisconsin Act 33 returned the adjudication of contested workers’ compensation claims from the Division of Hearings and Appeals to DWD’s Worker’s Compensation Division, effective January 1, 2026.

The first step depends on whether you have a lawyer. DWD says that if you have not retained an attorney, your claim initially follows an informal process: staff in the Division’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit review the issues and the medical support and, if they believe the dispute can be resolved without a formal hearing, contact you and the insurer. If that fails, you may request a formal hearing on DWD’s application form, WKC-7. DWD treats a claim as ready once it has received the application and a medical report supporting the benefits claimed, a represented worker’s lawyer must also file a Certification of Readiness before a hearing is scheduled, and DWD may schedule a formal hearing once the claim is ready. In some cases an administrative law judge also meets an unrepresented worker in a prehearing conference that narrows the issues and explains how the hearing will run.

Any party may also request a mediation conference to discuss a mutually agreeable resolution without a formal hearing; DWD may schedule it once all the other parties agree in writing, an administrative law judge conducts it, and what is said there is confidential, with limited exceptions (Wis. Admin. Code § DWD 80.16). Many hearing requests settle before a formal hearing takes place.

When a hearing is scheduled, DWD notifies every party in writing of its date, time and location, serving or mailing the notice at least 10 days before the hearing (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(1)(a)); the Division schedules hearings only through written letter. DWD states that hearings are generally held near the municipality of the applicant’s residence. It holds hearings at seven locations statewide, in Madison, Milwaukee, Appleton, Eau Claire, Green Bay, La Crosse and Wausau, and the nearest of those to Lancaster are Madison and La Crosse.

While the application is pending, the statute of limitations is tolled, but never past the later of the case’s final disposition or the date the period would otherwise have ended, and it runs again after a dismissal without prejudice (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(a)1). If either side disagrees with the judge’s decision, it can petition the Labor and Industry Review Commission; DWD or the commission must have the petition in hand within 21 days after DWD mails the decision (Wis. Stat. § 102.18(3)). A party who disagrees with the commission’s order can then start an action in circuit court — a summons and complaint, filed and served as the statute requires — within 30 days of the commission’s order (Wis. Stat. § 102.23(1)(a)).

Lancaster Workers’ Comp Questions

I work on a farm outside Lancaster. Am I covered by workers’ compensation?

It depends on the farm’s size. Under Wis. Stat. § 102.04(1)(c), the law applies to a farm 10 days after the twentieth day in a calendar year on which it employed 6 or more employees; the 20 days need not be consecutive, and DWD says the 6 can be different people, full-time or part-time. Farmers or their employees working on an exchange basis are not counted, nor are certain relatives of the farmer when the farm is a sole proprietorship, partnership, limited liability company or family-farm corporation (§ 102.07(5)); in other farm corporations they generally are counted. Once the farm is covered, every employee is covered, relatives included. If a covered farm is uninsured, you claim through Wisconsin’s uninsured employers fund, which pays the compensation owed once DWD establishes the claim, apart from certain penalties and interest (§ 102.81(1)).

Where would a hearing on my Lancaster claim be held?

DWD sets the date, time and place and tells each party in a written notice at least 10 days before the hearing. DWD states that hearings are generally held near the municipality of the applicant’s residence, and of the seven locations where it holds hearings, the nearest to Lancaster are Madison and La Crosse. Many of these disputes end in a settlement before the hearing day arrives. Because the Worker’s Compensation Division schedules hearings only through written letter, check with the Division before acting on a call, text or email that claims to set a hearing for you.

The insurer wants me examined by a doctor it chose, far from Lancaster. Who pays for the trip?

The employer or insurer that asked for the exam does, and in advance. Its written request must state the date, time and place, name the examiner and explain how to change the proposed date, time and place, and Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(b) requires it to tender all necessary expenses, including transportation, before the examination. Refusing or obstructing a properly requested exam suspends your right to begin or maintain a proceeding for compensation while the refusal lasts; refusing after DWD or an administrative law judge directs you to attend, or obstructing the exam, also bars the weekly benefits that accrue during that period (Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(c)). Use the change procedure, or get advice, rather than skipping the appointment.

What must the insurer tell me if it denies my claim?

DWD’s guide for injured workers (WKC-18-P) says an insurer that denies a claim must tell you within 7 days of its decision and advise you of your right to a hearing, and one that is not paying because it is still investigating must notify you within 14 days after it receives notice of the injury. Keep every letter. Without a lawyer, your dispute goes first to DWD’s Alternative Dispute Resolution Unit, and if the issues cannot be resolved there you may request a formal hearing. DWD does not schedule a hearing until it has a medical report supporting the claim, so ask your treating practitioner early for a written opinion on how the injury relates to your work.

Is there a time limit if a work injury leaves me with a permanent brain injury or vision loss?

No statute of limitations applies to a traumatic injury that causes a permanent brain injury or any loss of vision, or to occupational disease and the other injuries listed in Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(b). Two § 102.12 rules still apply. Notify your employer within 30 days after the injury, or after you knew or ought to have known its nature and relation to your work; late notice is excused if the employer was not misled. And compensation is barred if nothing beyond medical or burial expenses is paid and no application is filed within two years of the injury, or of when you knew or ought to have known those things, unless your employer knew or should have known of the injury in that time.

What Workers’ Compensation Pays, and When

Maximums depend on the date of injury (DWD WKC-9572-P):

• Temporary total disability: two-thirds of your average weekly wage while you heal and the injury keeps you off work, 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).
• Medical care: reasonable and necessary treatment of a compensable injury from day one. You choose a treating practitioner licensed and practicing in Wisconsin (a physician, chiropractor, psychologist, dentist, physician assistant, advanced practice registered nurse or podiatrist), or by mutual agreement a qualified practitioner licensed elsewhere, with a second choice on notice to your employer or its insurer. Your employer must offer that choice once it has notice of the injury; in an emergency it may arrange treatment first and must offer the choice at the earliest opportunity afterward (Wis. Stat. § 102.42(2)(a)).

Deadlines:

• Notice to your employer within 30 days after the injury or after you knew or ought to have known its nature and relation to your work (Wis. Stat. § 102.12).
• Six years for most traumatic injuries on or after March 2, 2016, from the injury, the last compensation payment other than for treatment or burial, or the date compensation would have been last payable if no advancement were made, whichever is latest (Wis. Stat. § 102.17(4)(a)). Beside it stands the § 102.12 two-year bar: if nothing beyond treatment or burial expenses is paid and no application is filed 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 in that time.
• No statute of limitations for occupational disease or the injuries listed in § 102.17(4)(b); the § 102.12 two-year bar still applies.
• Wage benefits start after three days, not counting Sundays unless you work them; those days are paid if the disability lasts beyond the seventh calendar day after you leave work (Wis. Stat. § 102.43) or the injury causes permanent disability (DWD WKC-18-P).

For an insurer’s exam, your necessary expenses, including travel, must be tendered in advance, and you may bring your own practitioner, one observer and, if needed, your own translator (Wis. Stat. § 102.13(1)(b)). A lawyer’s fee generally may not exceed 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 (Wis. Stat. § 102.26(2)); DWD approves fees.

More in our guides: filing a workers’ compensation claim, responding to a denial, attorney fees and serious work injuries.

Who Handles Your Lancaster Claim

Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays concentrates her practice on workers’ compensation for injured Wisconsin workers and has represented them for more than 25 years. She earned her J.D. cum laude from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in 1995, the year she was admitted to the Wisconsin bar, and from 2001 to 2025 she served on the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Association of Worker’s Compensation Attorneys for District 7. Read more about Attorney Lisa Pierobon Mays and our Wisconsin workers’ compensation practice.

Mays Law Office represents injured workers across Wisconsin, including Lancaster and the rest of Grant County, from its office in Middleton. To start, call 608-305-4518 or send a message through our contact form; the office takes your information, and Attorney Mays calls you back for a free consultation. Se habla español.

Workers’ Comp Help Near Lancaster

Each of these nearby communities has a page of its own:

• workers’ compensation claims in Platteville
• injured workers in Prairie du Chien
• Dodgeville workers’ comp help
• workers’ compensation claims in Darlington

Two of our Wisconsin guides offer more detail:

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