Claim Petition

A Claim Petition is how a denied claim becomes a court case. When the insurer denies your injury or refuses to pay specific benefits, filing a Claim Petition with the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) formally puts the dispute in front of a compensation judge under Minn. Stat. § 176.271 and § 176.291.

The petition lays out the who/what/when of the injury and lists every benefit claimed (wage loss, PPD, medical bills, rehabilitation), and it should generally be supported by a medical report connecting the injury to work. The insurer answers, the case gets scheduled, and along the way most claims pass through discovery, possibly a settlement conference, and often mediation before any hearing.

You can file one yourself (DLI and OAH publish the forms), but this is the point in a claim where procedure starts to have teeth: pleading benefits correctly, serving the right parties, attaching adequate medical support, and dealing with intervenors are all traps for the unrepresented. Attorney fees on a Claim Petition are contingent and capped by Minn. Stat. § 176.081.