GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 2007

S                                                                                                                                                     1

SENATE BILL 997

Short Title:     Increase Cap for Loss of Workers' Organs.		(Public)
Sponsors:	Senators Berger of Franklin;  Boseman and Kinnaird.
Referred to:	Judiciary I (Civil).

March 20, 2007

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT to increase the maximum award under the workers' compensation act for the loss or permanent injury to an important organ or part of the body not otherwise addressed in the schedule of injuries.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1.  G.S. 97‑31(24) reads as rewritten:

"(24)   In case of the loss of or permanent injury to any important external or internal organ or part of the body for which no compensation is payable under any other subdivision of this section, the Industrial Commission may award proper and equitable compensation not to exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000).fifty thousand dollars ($50,000)."

SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law and applies to all agreements approved by the North Carolina Industrial Commission under the Workers' Compensation Act, Article 1 of Chapter 97 of the General Statutes, that are approved on or after that date; all orders or decisions of the North Carolina Industrial Commission under the Workers' Compensation Act that are entered on or after that date; and all awards of the North Carolina Industrial Commission unappealed from or affirmed upon appeal under the Workers' Compensation Act that are awarded on or after that date.