Fired for Filing Workers’ Comp?
Ohio Law Protects You.

The law your employer hopes you don’t know about

Every year, Mike sees the same pattern: an injured worker files a legitimate workers’ compensation claim, and within weeks — sometimes days — the employer finds a reason to let them go. A sudden “restructuring.” A write-up for something that was never an issue before. A shift change that makes the job impossible. The excuses are creative, but the motive is always the same.

Ohio’s legislature anticipated this. Ohio Revised Code § 4123.90 makes it illegal for any employer to discharge, demote, reassign, or take any punitive action against an employee for filing a workers’ compensation claim, hiring a lawyer, or testifying in a workers’ compensation proceeding. This statute is your shield — and in Mike’s 49 years of practice, it has been one of the most powerful tools available to injured workers.

What counts as retaliation

Retaliation is not limited to outright termination. Ohio courts have recognized a wide range of employer conduct as retaliatory under R.C. 4123.90. The question is not whether the employer called it “retaliation” — it never will — but whether the adverse action was motivated by your decision to file or pursue a workers’ compensation claim.

In Mike’s experience, the most dangerous form of retaliation is the subtle kind — the employer that doesn’t fire you outright but instead makes your work life unbearable until you quit. Ohio courts recognize this as constructive discharge, and it is actionable under R.C. 4123.90. If you are being pushed out, document everything and contact an attorney immediately.

The deadlines that destroy cases

These deadlines under R.C. 4123.90 are absolute. Ohio courts have consistently refused to extend them for any reason — illness, lack of legal knowledge, ongoing negotiations with the employer, or even promises from the employer that the situation would be resolved. Once 90 days pass without written notice, or 180 days pass without filing suit, your right to bring a claim under this statute is permanently extinguished.

Mike cannot stress this enough: if you believe your employer has retaliated against you for filing a workers’ comp claim, call an attorney immediately. Do not wait for the employer to “make it right.” Do not wait to see if things improve. Every day you wait is a day closer to losing your right to sue entirely.

How to prove retaliation

Under Ohio law, you must establish that your employer’s adverse action was motivated by your filing of a workers’ compensation claim. You do not need a “smoking gun” — direct evidence such as a supervisor saying “you’re fired because you filed a claim” — although Mike has encountered exactly that more than once. Circumstantial evidence is sufficient, and Ohio courts consider factors including:

• Timing: How close in time was the adverse action to the filing of your claim? An employer who fires you two weeks after your claim is filed has a harder time claiming coincidence than one who acts a year later.
• Pretext: Did the employer offer a reason for the adverse action that doesn’t hold up? Sudden performance issues in someone with a clean record are a classic sign of pretext.
• Disparate treatment: Were similarly situated employees who did not file claims treated differently? If others committed the same alleged infraction without consequences, that supports retaliation.
• Pattern of conduct: Has the employer retaliated against other workers who filed claims? A pattern of punishing claimants strengthens your case significantly.

Documentation is your most powerful weapon

In 49 years of practice, Mike has learned that the injured workers who win retaliation cases are the ones who document everything. Your memory is not enough — you need contemporaneous records that a court can rely on. Start a written log the moment you suspect retaliation, and include:

• The exact date, time, and location of every adverse action or threatening statement.
• The names of every person involved — supervisors, HR representatives, witnesses.
• The exact words used, as closely as you can recall them — not a summary, but the actual language.
• Any written communications: emails, texts, letters, disciplinary notices, schedule changes.
• Your employment record before and after filing your claim — performance reviews, attendance records, commendations.

Remedies available under R.C. 4123.90

If you prevail in a retaliation lawsuit, Ohio law provides meaningful remedies designed to make you whole. Under R.C. 4123.90, a court can award:

In practice, many retaliation cases settle before trial because employers recognize the financial exposure and reputational risk of going to court. Mike has negotiated substantial settlements for clients who were illegally terminated — often exceeding what the worker would have earned had they simply kept their job.

Patterns Mike has seen in 49 years of practice

After nearly five decades of representing injured workers across Ohio, Mike has identified patterns that repeat with disturbing regularity:

• The “attendance policy” trap: Employers apply a no-fault attendance policy to count injury-related absences, then terminate the worker for “excessive absences” — even though those absences were caused by the work injury itself.
• The post-MMI ambush: Workers return from medical leave with restrictions, and the employer claims it has no light-duty work available — then fills the position within weeks.
• The “we’re restructuring” excuse: Conveniently timed layoffs that target the one employee who recently filed a workers’ comp claim.
• Self-insured employer aggression: Self-insured employers pay claims from their own funds and are statistically more likely to engage in retaliatory conduct because every dollar of your claim comes directly from their bottom line.

The intersection with other claims

A retaliation lawsuit under R.C. 4123.90 is separate from your underlying workers’ compensation claim. Filing a retaliation lawsuit does not affect your BWC benefits, and pursuing your BWC claim does not prevent you from suing for retaliation. In many cases, the retaliation case and the workers’ comp claim proceed simultaneously.

If your employer also violated a specific safety requirement (VSSR) that caused your injury, that adds another layer of liability. And if a third party — such as a equipment manufacturer or property owner — contributed to your injury, a third-party claim may run alongside both the BWC case and the retaliation suit. Mike evaluates every case for all available avenues of recovery.