Overview
A workers compensation history shows claims a person has filed for workplace injuries. The records are held by state agencies, and they are among the most heavily restricted records in employment screening.
Three separate bodies of law govern this component: state rules determining whether the records are available at all, federal disability law determining when an employer may ask, and anti-retaliation provisions determining what may be done with the answer. The result is that this check is available to fewer employers, at a later stage, and for narrower purposes than almost anything else on this site.
What Workers Compensation Is
Workers compensation is a state administered system providing medical care and wage replacement to employees injured at work. It operates without regard to fault, so an injured worker receives benefits whether or not anyone was negligent, and in exchange gives up most rights to sue the employer over the injury.
A claim is therefore an application for benefits under a no fault system. It is not a lawsuit, it establishes no wrongdoing by anyone, and filing one is the intended use of a system every covered employee participates in.
That framing matters for reading a record. A history of claims records injuries that occurred at work, not conduct.
When It May Be Requested
Workers compensation history may not be requested before a conditional job offer. A claim history reveals medical information, so asking about it is a disability related inquiry under federal law. It falls under the same timing framework as a medical examination, and it belongs after an offer rather than during candidate selection.
The stages of that framework are described on our Physical Exams page. After a conditional offer, an employer may make such inquiries provided it does so consistently for all entering employees in that job category.
This timing rule is the most commonly violated aspect of this component. An application form asking whether a candidate has ever filed a workers compensation claim is a pre-offer disability related inquiry.
Access Varies by State
Whether an employer can obtain these records at all is a state question, and states take very different positions.
Some make claim records available to employers after a conditional offer, under defined conditions. Some restrict access to the parties involved in a claim and their representatives. Some permit access only where the employer already has a relationship with the individual. Some charge fees, require the individual’s written authorization on a state form, or require the requester to register.
Because of that variation, workers compensation history is not a component an employer can assume is available. The rules are set by the agency administering the system in each state, so the position has to be confirmed for the state where the work is performed.
What a Record Contains
| Claim date | When the claim was filed. |
| Employer | The employer at the time of the injury. |
| Injury type | The nature of the injury, in the terms the state records it. |
| Body part | What was injured. |
| Claim status | Whether the claim is open, closed, denied, or settled. |
| Benefits | What was paid, where the state discloses it. |
What appears varies considerably from one state to another, because each state runs its own system and sets its own rules on what is recorded and what may be disclosed. Some states return a full claim history with injury detail and benefit amounts. Others show little beyond the fact of a claim and its status, and some release nothing at all to employers.
The practical consequence is that a search covering several states produces uneven results, and a clear return from one state says nothing about whether that state simply does not disclose. Availability and content have to be understood state by state rather than treated as a single product.
Limits on How It May Be Used
Obtaining the information lawfully does not mean it can be used freely.
Federal disability law prohibits withdrawing an offer because of a disability unless the person cannot perform the essential functions of the job even with reasonable accommodation, or presents a direct threat that accommodation cannot reduce. A past injury does not establish either, and a decision based on the possibility of future injury is the pattern this law was written to prevent.
The assessment must be individual. A rule excluding anyone with a prior claim of a certain type is categorical rather than individual, and it does not consider what this person can currently do.
Many states also prohibit using claim history in hiring decisions outright, independently of federal law.
Retaliation Protections
Every state prohibits retaliation against an employee for filing a workers compensation claim. Those protections are central to how the system functions, since a no fault system depends on injured workers actually filing.
The protections generally extend to hiring in some form, so refusing to hire someone because they previously filed a claim can be unlawful independently of disability law. The scope varies by state.
What It Does Not Cover
- Injuries that were never claimed, which produce no record.
- Claims in states not searched.
- Medical records. A claim record is not a medical file.
- Current physical capability, which is assessed through a physical examination or physical ability testing where the role justifies it.
- Fault or conduct. The system is no fault by design.
- Personal injury lawsuits, which are civil cases covered on our Civil Records page.
Where It Fits
Where a screening company obtains workers compensation information and reports it to an employer, that information forms part of a consumer report. Written disclosure and authorization are required before it is requested, accuracy obligations attach to what is reported, and the individual has the right to dispute anything incorrect. Our FCRA Overview covers those requirements in full.
The consumer reporting rules are the least restrictive of the several that apply here. State access rules determine whether the record can be obtained, disability law determines when it may be requested and how it may be used, and retaliation provisions limit what may be done with it. An employer satisfying only the consumer reporting requirements has addressed the smallest part of the picture.
Where an employer does receive this information, federal disability law requires it to be kept in separate confidential medical files rather than in a general personnel record.
Where a claim history contributes to withdrawing an offer, the required notice steps apply. See The Adverse Action Process.