Michigan Attorneys for Professional Athletes

In many states, Workers’ Compensation benefits are not available to professional athletes by Statute. Such is not the case in Michigan.

We have a specific Statute that deals with professional athletes that essentially has been interpreted by the Courts to place no limitation on benefits being pursued by professional athletes. Section 360 of the Workers’ Compensation Act provides as follows:

“418.360 Professional athlete; weekly benefits; condition; benefits under other provisions.

Sec. 360. (1) A person who suffers an injury arising out of and in the course of employment as a professional athlete shall be entitled to weekly benefits only when the person’s average weekly wages in all employments at the time of application for benefits, and thereafter, as computed in accordance with section 371, are less than 200% of the state average weekly wage.

(2) This section shall not be construed to prohibit an otherwise eligible person from receiving benefits under section 315, 319, or 361.”

Law & Athletes

The Courts have interpreted the above Section of the Workers’ Compensation Act to indicate that if a workers’ compensation case is filed after the end of the professional sports season and the employee does not have income greater than twice the states average weekly wage (in 2008, this would be $820.04 x 2 = $1,640.08), the Workers’ Compensation Application can proceed without limitation. Therefore, unless an athlete has significant ongoing income, for example, a Nike advertising contract, he/she can proceed with the Workers’ Compensation Application for Benefits.

Likewise, this Section of the Act has indicated that in the future, at any time that the professional athlete does not make more than twice the states average weekly wage, he/she can proceed to seek benefits.

A separate issue is the issue of entitlement of benefits during the off-season. Therefore, if an athlete plays football from January 1 to June 30, including the playoffs, and he would not have played football, therefore, in the off-season and would not have earned income playing football even if he was not injured and disabled, the Court of Appeals has indicated there is no wage loss to replace.

It is well-known to the public that professional athletes do not have a career beyond probably a maximum of age 40. To compensate the professional athlete based upon a lifetime of disability due to an injury and limitation of function is totally unreasonable compared to any other profession or employment.

Also, it is noted that to pay a professional athlete based upon an injury date and a wage at the time of injury based upon the high 39 of 52 weeks, is totally unreasonable when most professional athletes only work for a small portion of the year and, in fact, in many cases, only one-half of a year. The remaining portion of the year, they are, at most, working out to get in shape for the next season but are not full-time occupied in the profession.

Client Focus

The law firm has represented professional athletic teams in this area including the Grand Rapids Rampage and the Grand Rapids Griffins.

Contacting Our Attorneys

Our firm has specific experience in defending professional athlete workers’ compensation cases and we would be glad to answer any questions you may have. To contact an attorney about your specific needs – call our Grand Rapids, Michigan, Law Offices at: 616-774-2131 or contact us online.