Revises workers' compensation coverage for certain injuries to volunteer and professional public safety and law enforcement personnel.

A1045

ASSEMBLY, No. 1045

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

222nd LEGISLATURE

�

PRE-FILED FOR INTRODUCTION IN THE 2026 SESSION

Sponsored by:

Assemblyman WAYNE P. DEANGELO

District 14 (Mercer and Middlesex)

Assemblyman CLINTON CALABRESE

District 36 (Bergen and Passaic)

Co-Sponsored by:

Assemblywoman Dunn

SYNOPSIS

���� Revises workers' compensation coverage for certain
injuries to volunteer and professional public safety and law enforcement
personnel.

CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT

���� Introduced Pending Technical Review by Legislative
Counsel.

��

An Act
concerning workers� compensation coverage and amending
P.L.1987,
c.382.

����
Be It
Enacted
by the Senate and General Assembly of
the State of New Jersey:

���� 1.��� Section 1 of P.L.1987, c.382
(C.34:15-7.3) is amended to read as follows:

���� 1.��� a.� For any
cardiovascular or cerebrovascular injury or death which occurs to an individual
covered by subsection b. of this section while that individual is engaged in a
response to an emergency, there shall be a rebuttable presumption that the
response
to the emergency included a work effort sufficient to cause
injury or death

[
is
]

and thus

compensable under R.S. 34:15-1 et seq., if that injury or death occurs while
the individual is responding
[
,
under orders from competent authority,
]

to
or remediating from
a law enforcement, public safety or medical
emergency as defined in subsection c. of this section.

���� b.��� This section shall apply
to:

���� (1)� Any permanent or
temporary member of a paid or part-paid fire or police department and force;

���� (2)� Any member of a volunteer
fire company;

���� (3)� Any member of a volunteer
first aid or rescue squad;
[
and
]

���� (4)� Any special, reserve, or
auxiliary policeman doing volunteer duty
;

����
(5)� Any recognized
emergency management member doing volunteer duty;

����
(6)� Any career emergency
medical technician or paramedic, employed by the State, a county, a
municipality, or a private sector counterpart, who is engaged in public
emergency medical and rescue services; and

����
(7)� Any individual working
as a 9-1-1 dispatcher
.

���� c.��� As used in this section
[
,
]

:

���� "
[
law
]

Law

enforcement, public safety or medical emergency" means any combination of
circumstances requiring immediate action to prevent the loss of human life, the
destruction of property, or the violation of the criminal laws of this State or
its political subdivisions, and includes, but is not limited to, the
suppression of a fire, a firemanic drill, the apprehension of a criminal, or
medical and rescue service.

����
�Remediating from� means
leaving an emergency in a reasonable period of time, not to exceed 24 hours
from the end of the emergency, to carry out post-incident agency protocols and
decompression including measures such as critical incident stress debriefings.

����
d.��� The presumption of
compensability pursuant to subsection a. of this section shall be rebuttable by
use of casual factors such as horseplay, skylarking, self-infliction, voluntary
intoxication, and illicit drug use.� Rebuttal of the presumption based upon
medical causation shall require clear and convincing medical evidence that the
work experience was not a substantial cause of the cardiovascular or
cerebrovascular injury.

(cf: P.L.1987, c.382, s.1)

���� 2.��� This act shall take
effect immediately, and shall apply to all applicable injuries and deaths
pending on the date of enactment.

STATEMENT

����� This bill revises the law governing workers�
compensation coverage for certain injuries to volunteer and professional public
safety and law enforcement personnel.�

����� Under current law, there is a rebuttable presumption
that any cardiovascular or cerebrovascular injury or death which occurs to
individuals who are volunteer and professional public safety and law
enforcement personnel while those individuals are engaged in a response to an
emergency is compensable if that injury or death occurs while the individual is
responding, under orders from competent authority, to an emergency.� The bill
clarifies that the rebuttable presumption means that a response to an emergency
was a work effort sufficient to cause injury or death and is therefore
compensable under the workers� compensation law.

����� This bill expands the individuals that are covered by
the presumption to include any recognized emergency management member doing
volunteer duty, any career emergency medical technicians and paramedics
employed by the State, a county, a municipality, or a private sector
counterpart who is engaged in public emergency medical and rescue services, and
any individual working as a 9-1-1 dispatcher.� It also removes the requirement
that the individual must be responding to orders under competent authority in order
to recover, and provides that individuals are covered by the presumption when
remediating from an emergency.

����� The bill provides that a rebuttal of the presumption
of compensability requires clear and convincing medical evidence that the work
experience was not a substantial cause of the cardiovascular or cerebrovascular
injury.

����� The bill provides that the presumption of
compensability is rebuttable by use of casual factors such as horseplay,
skylarking, self-infliction, voluntary intoxication, and illicit drug use.