Termination of Wage Loss Award in Virginia Workers’ Comp: Should You Sign It?

What a Termination of Wage Loss Award Does

A Termination of Wage Loss Award (TWLA) is the form that closes an open award. Sign it, and the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission enters an order ending your weekly checks as of the date on the form. Your medical award stays open. So does your right to future wage loss benefits if your disability or employment changes.

If you are reading this, the form may have arrived in the same envelope as the Award Agreement, or a few days after your doctor eased your work restrictions and returned you to full or light duty. Or maybe you returned to work in the past week. The adjuster wants you to sign and return it, and may even refuse to sign the proposed Award Agreement form unless you sign both. But don’t sign it without understanding how it affects your current and future right to wage loss benefits.

The Award Agreement is the form that opens an award. The Award Order is the Commission’s order adopting that agreement. And the Termination of Wage Loss Award is the form that ends your current award for temporary total disability (TTD) or temporary partial disability (TPD) benefits. Like the Award Agreement, the Commission reviews the form to ensure it complies with the Rules and enters an order if it does. That order becomes final 30 days later unless you, the employer, or the insurer requests review.

Signing this form is one of the three main ways an open wage loss award ends in Virginia workers’ compensation. The other two are if the insurer files an Employer’s Application for Hearing and wins. Or you reach 500 weeks of total indemnity benefits (TTD, TPD, or permanent partial disability) and do not pursue a claim for permanent and total disability benefits. The TWLA is the only way the insurer can end your benefits without proving anything.

Why the Adjuster Sends You a Termination of Wage Loss Award Form Instead of Filing an Application to Cut Off Benefits

From the insurance adjuster’s view, ending an award with a TWLA is much less work than filing an Employer’s Application for Hearing. It requires no certification, proof, documentation, or need to persuade one of the Commission’s claims examiners or staff attorneys that it will likely succeed on the merits. It also doesn’t allow the injured worker to object to the attempt to stop benefits. If you sign it, the Commission will presume that you agree with it: no asking whether you actually returned to work, whether the employer offered a job that meets your restrictions, or if the doctor released you to return to work.

So the adjuster knows that having you sign the TWLA form is the path of least resistance. It’s efficient. But efficient for the insurer is not the same as being good or correct for you.

When Signing Is the Right Call

I’m not saying you should never sign a Termination of Wage Loss Award form. Sometimes you should, if it tells the truth about the evidence and gets the date right.

For example, I have recommended that clients sign the form in these situations:

Every treating physician has released you to full duty with no restrictions for every injury suffered in the work accident, including compensable consequence injuries.

You returned to your pre-injury job, or a light duty job that fits each restriction you have, and you make the same or more than you did before you got hurt. But even then, I often recommend waiting several weeks to sign the Termination of Wage Loss Award to ensure you can do the job or don’t have an increase in symptoms that requires you to return to the doctor.

Refusing to sign in these circumstances does not mean that you will continue to receive checks. Rather, it forces the insurer to file an Employer’s Application, which it will likely win on these facts. It may also give the insurer a credit against future benefits for any overpayment made.

I also usually recommend my clients sign the form when it reflects a closed period of wage loss benefit they already agreed to or received voluntarily. If you missed six weeks of work for a lumbar strain, went back to full duty, and have worked for months, you should probably sign the form if it terminates benefits on the day you actually returned. There is nothing to fight about, and holding out does not give you leverage.

The test for whether you should sign is this: does the TWLA form reflect the documentary evidence – pay stubs and the doctor’s last note? If you no longer have restrictions, make the same wage or higher, and the dates line up, sign it.

When Not to Sign

I recommend that you not sign the TWLA before speaking with a lawyer in these situations:

You went back to light duty, but still have wage loss. If your employer found a modified job that pays less than your pre-injury wage, do not sign a Termination of Wage Loss Award unless the insurer provides an Award Agreement form that converts your award from temporary total to temporary partial disability. Termination is wrong; conversion to a different type of award is right.

The job exceeds your restrictions. I’ve lost track of how many times an insurer tells my client the pre-injury employer has a light-duty job available, only for the employee to show up and be asked to violate their work restrictions. You should discuss with an attorney whether to keep showing up – sometimes it makes sense to stop, but doing so may have consequences if the evidence is not as strong as you think.

You have an upcoming doctor’s appointment soon after you start the light-duty position. Some of you may feel good because you have not had to push yourself at work in months, or even years. But soon after returning, you may find that you’re deconditioned. And your symptoms increase. Discuss this with your doctor before signing the TWLA. Your physician may add restrictions back when they realize they pushed you back to full duty too soon. Short returns to light-duty work do not support termination of an award under the case law.

The effective date is wrong. Adjusters routinely use the doctor’s release date, not the date you actually returned to work. If the release was a Friday and you started the following Wednesday, you are owed those days. Check the date against your first pay stub, not the medical note.

The IME doctor released you, not your treating physician. Generally, the Workers’ Compensation Commission gives more weight to the treating physician’s opinion. If the insurer relies on the opinions of its hand-selected IME physician to ask you to sign a Termination of Wage Loss Award, decline.

In each of these, the right answer is not to sign. Instead, keep cashing the checks, and let the insurer decide whether it wants to file. If it files, the Employer’s Application page explains what happens next and how to respond.

What Happens If You Don’t Sign

Nothing happens to your award, at least not without the insurer taking action. That is the point.

You have an open award. The insurer cannot stop paying because you refuse to sign a form. It has two options; I cover both on the Employer’s Application for Hearing page. It can keep paying. Or it can file the application under Rule 1.4, attach the supporting documents, and ask the Commission to suspend benefits. If the Commission finds probable cause, your checks stop – with the exact date depending on the specific allegation – and the case goes to hearing. If it does not, the checks continue.

The insurer cannot simply stop. Otherwise, you can file for a 20 percent penalty on unpaid amounts more than 14 days late under § 65.2-524. This is the only way to force the insurer to play by the rules.

But two warnings: First, if you returned to work at full pay, declining to sign the TWLA will not help you unless the insurer waits more than two years to file the Employer’s Application. This is because of the language in the Commission’s rules, which requires an employer to have made payments within two years of the date it seeks to cut off benefits. Otherwise, the Commission will refuse to allow a hearing; it will simply reject the application on technical grounds. It’s rare, but some employers and insurers forget to file the application and end up having to pay large amounts in penalties – money they would not have had to pay if they had filed the right forms. I’ve helped injured workers take advantage of this mistake in cases involving a large department store, an airline, and a grocery store. Second, do not ignore the application to suspend payments. You have a short window to object to avoid the Commission docketing it for a hearing.

The Clock the TWLA Form Starts

The date your benefits end on the Termination of Wage Loss Award form is critical. It starts a new deadline; one that matters if your condition changes in the future.

With some exceptions, Virginia Code § 65.2-708 gives you 24 months from the last day compensation was paid under an award to file a change-in-condition claim for additional wage-loss benefits. The termination form states the date compensation was last paid under an award.

Important: The date the Commission enters the TWLA is not the date that matters. The date that order says your benefits stopped is.

What Signing Does Not Do

Signing the form does not close your case, and adjusters who tell you otherwise are wrong.

You still have the lifetime medical award. The insurer must pay for reasonable and necessary care from an authorized physician if it relates to your work injury. For example, I’ve negotiated a workers’ comp settlement for an auto mechanic who needed a second surgery more than 30 years after the first.

Similarly, you can seek permanent partial disability benefits, even if you no longer have wage loss or get released to full duty. I usually recommend waiting until you have returned to work for six months before pursuing PPD.

You can also reopen your wage loss award. Many of the injured workers I help need changes to their work restrictions after returning. The most common reason is the need for surgery that leads to a period of total disability. Another reason is an employer who stops accommodating their restrictions. Even if you signed a TWLA, you can file a change-in-condition claim to reinstate wage loss payments.

Finally, a termination order is not a settlement. You can still negotiate a lump sum payment to release the insurer from liability.

Before You Sign

Four things to check, in order. If any one applies, do not sign the TWLA until you have talked to an attorney.

Your doctor’s last note. Full duty, or restrictions? If you have restrictions, conversion to TPD is appropriate, not a termination.
Your pay. Is it the same as or higher than your pre-injury average weekly wage, including the overtime you used to work? If not, you can seek the difference. If you sign prematurely, you may have to market your residual work capacity to get back on an award.
The date. Does it match your first day back on the pay stub, not the date on the medical release?
The envelope. Is the termination form attached to an Award Agreement or a request for a recorded statement? Adjusters bundle. You don’t have to.

If all four check out, you can probably sign it, keep a copy, and calendar the 24-month deadline from the termination date in case the job does not last.

If you are not sure, do not sign and do not argue with the adjuster about it. The form is voluntary. If you decline, the insurer’s remedy is to file, and the Commission will decide. That is the system working the way it is supposed to, and it costs you nothing to let it.

If you have a Termination of Wage Loss Award sitting on your kitchen table and you are not sure whether to sign, call me today at 804-251-1620.