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Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 21 Sec. 656

  • employee: means an individual who has entered into the employment of, or works under contract of service or apprenticeship with, an employer. See
  • Employer: includes any body of persons, corporate or unincorporated, public or private, and the legal representative of a deceased employer, and includes the owner or lessee of premises or other person who is virtually the proprietor or operator of the business there carried on, but who, by reason of there being an independent contractor or for any other reason, is not the direct employer of the workers there employed. See
  • Employment: includes public employment, and, in the case of private employers, includes all employment in any trade or occupation notwithstanding that an employer may be a nonprofit corporation, institution, association, partnership, or proprietorship. See
  • exposure: means contact with infectious agents such as bodily fluids through inhalation, percutaneous inoculation, or contact with an open wound, nonintact skin, or mucous membranes, or other potentially infectious materials that may result from the performance of an employee's duties. See
  • Occupational disease: means a disease that results from causes and conditions characteristic of and peculiar to a particular trade, occupation, process, or employment, and to which an employee is not ordinarily subjected or exposed outside or away from the employment and arises out of and in the course of the employment. See
  • Person: shall include any natural person, corporation, municipality, the State of Vermont or any department, agency, or subdivision of the State, and any partnership, unincorporated association, or other legal entity. See

§ 656. Notice of injury and claim for compensation

(a) A proceeding under the provisions of this chapter for compensation shall not be maintained unless a notice of the injury has been given to the employer as soon as practicable after the injury occurred, and unless a claim for compensation with respect to an injury has been made within six months after the date of the injury; or, in case of death, within six months after death, unless the claimant had made a claim for compensation prior to death.

(b) The date of injury, or in the case of occupational disease, the date of injurious exposure shall be the point in time when the injury or disease, and its relationship to the employment is reasonably discoverable and apparent. If that date occurs after the employee has ceased all employment, the employee shall be entitled to reasonable and necessary medical treatment necessitated by the injury and permanent partial or permanent total disability compensation based on the employee’s average weekly wage at the time of the last work-related exposure.

(c) The notice and claim may be given or made by any person claiming to be entitled to compensation or by someone in the employee’s behalf. If payments of compensation have been made voluntarily, the making of a claim within this period shall not be required. If the claim is denied after voluntary payments were made, the claimant shall commence proceedings under this chapter within six months from the date of denial. (Amended 1993, No. 225 (Adj. Sess.), § 9; 1999, No. 41, § 5.)