Pending New Jersey Legislation and What It Means for Injured Workers
The 2026 to 2027 session of the New Jersey Legislature has produced an unusually active slate of workers' compensation bills. Nearly all were introduced on January 13, 2026, and most remain in committee, but together they signal where Trenton intends to take the system. Some bills would expand benefits for injured workers and their survivors. Others would narrow eligibility or shorten the filing window. For workers, employers, insurers, and the bar, the cumulative direction matters. Below is a status report on each measure, organized by the kind of change it would make and the practical impact on benefits.
A drafting note for readers: many of these bills travel as identical Assembly and Senate companions. Where that is the case, both bill numbers appear together. None of the measures discussed here has yet been enacted, and committee referral is not passage. Status was verified against the New Jersey Legislature record (via the official bill pages and LegiScan) and is current as of June 2026. As of that date, every bill below remains in committee, and only the September 11 responder measure has advanced out of its first committee.
Bills That Would Expand Benefits
A1023 / S3984, Medical Cannabis Coverage
These companion bills would require workers' compensation, personal injury protection, and health insurance to cover the costs of medical cannabis for a qualifying patient authorized under the Jake Honig Compassionate Use Medical Cannabis Act. A1023 was introduced on January 13, 2026, and referred to the Assembly Financial Institutions and Insurance Committee; the Senate version, S3984, carries the same purpose. The bills carry over substantially identical language from A4371 and S1943, which failed to advance in the prior session. An important limit is built in: an employer or carrier would not be required to provide coverage if the federal government intervenes to enforce the Controlled Substances Act.
Impact on benefits: For injured workers, this is one of the most consequential measures on the list. It would convert medical cannabis from an out-of-pocket expense into a covered, reimbursable treatment, and the sponsors frame it as a lower-cost, lower-risk alternative to opioids. The practical effect would be broader access to pain management for workers whose physicians recommend cannabis.
A1870 / S1379, September 11 Responder Benefits
This measure would provide workers' compensation benefits to certain public safety workers who developed illness or injury as a result of responding to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The bills were introduced on January 13, 2026, with the Assembly version referred to the Assembly Labor Committee and the Senate version to the Senate Labor Committee. This is the most procedurally advanced bill on the list. On February 5, 2026, the Senate Labor Committee reported S1379 favorably by a unanimous five-to-zero vote, gave it a second reading, and referred it to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, where it remains pending as of June 2026. Sponsored by Senators Lagana and Scutari as part of a bipartisan group, it has not advanced further, and no companion floor vote has been scheduled.
Impact on benefits: The bill would extend compensability to a defined class of responders whose conditions may have manifested years after exposure, easing the causation and timing hurdles that often defeat latent occupational disease claims. Its clearance of the Senate Labor Committee, with the rest of the package still sitting in its first committee, makes it the single bill most likely to reach a floor vote this session, though a fiscal review in Budget and Appropriations stands between it and passage.
A1045, Public Safety and Law Enforcement Injuries
A1045 would revise workers' compensation coverage for certain injuries to volunteer and professional public safety and law enforcement personnel. It was introduced on January 13, 2026, and referred to the Assembly Labor Committee. Impact on benefits: depending on the final scope, the bill would broaden the categories of injury for which first responders may recover, a population that already enjoys special presumptions in several injury categories.
A3548 / S3571, Maximum Benefit for Volunteers
These companions would provide certain volunteer and other workers with the maximum compensation benefit on a claim, regardless of outside employment. A3548 was introduced on January 13, 2026, and referred to the Assembly Labor Committee; the Senate companion, S3571, was introduced and referred to the Senate Labor Committee on February 19, 2026. Both remain in committee. Impact on benefits: a volunteer worker injured in the course of service would receive benefits calculated at the statutory maximum rather than at a rate tied to nominal or nonexistent volunteer wages, materially increasing indemnity recovery for this group.
A1577 / S408, PERS Accidental Disability Eligibility
This pair would permit an application for a Public Employees' Retirement System accidental disability benefit for an injury sustained after January 2003 while employed at a State psychiatric institution or correctional facility immediately prior to PERS membership. Impact on benefits: it would open accidental disability eligibility to a narrow class of public employees whose injuries predated their formal membership, restoring a benefit pathway that current law forecloses.
S1397, Valuation of Board and Lodging
S1397 concerns the valuation of board and lodging for workers' compensation purposes. Impact on benefits: because board and lodging can form part of the wage base, their valuation directly affects the average weekly wage and, therefore, the size of indemnity benefits for workers who receive in-kind compensation.
A4617, Supplemental Benefits and Funding
A4617 concerns certain workers' compensation supplemental benefits and the method used to fund them. Impact on benefits: supplemental benefit programs typically adjust long-term awards over time, so the funding mechanism the Legislature selects determines whether those cost-of-living-style adjustments remain solvent and payable to long-term recipients.
Bills That Would Restrict or Condition Benefits
A1384 / S2757, Shorter Statute of Limitations on Medical Fee Disputes
These companions would reduce the statute of limitations for medical fee disputes from 6 years to 2 years. They were introduced on January 13, 2026, and referred to the Assembly and Senate Labor Committees. The bills respond directly to The Plastic Surgery Center, PA v. Malouf Chevrolet-Cadillac, Inc., in which the New Jersey Supreme Court affirmed that the six-year contract limitations period applies to medical provider claims because the Legislature's 2012 amendment did not address the issue. The Court expressly invited the Legislature to act, and these bills are that response.
Impact on benefits: This is a defense-oriented measure. It would not reduce an injured worker's own benefits, but by cutting the filing window for provider fee disputes by two-thirds, it would foreclose many late-filed provider claims, with downstream effects on which medical bills get litigated and paid.
A2779 / S1521, Excluding Certain Workers from Coverage
These bills would exclude certain undocumented workers from workers' compensation and temporary disability benefits. They were introduced on January 13, 2026, and referred to the Assembly and Senate Labor Committees. Impact on benefits: This is the most restrictive measure on the list. It would strip a category of workers of coverage that New Jersey law has historically extended, regardless of immigration status, removing both medical and indemnity benefits for those workers if they are injured on the job.
A2792 / S1555, Intoxication Bar
Structural and Procedural Bills
A3167 / S2372, Coverage Requirements for Corporations and Partnerships
These bills concern workers' compensation insurance requirements for certain corporations and partnerships. They were introduced on January 13, 2026, and referred to the Assembly and Senate Labor Committees. Impact on benefits: By clarifying which corporate officers and partners must be covered, the measure affects whether benefits are available at all to that ownership class when those officers or partners are injured.
A3724, Personal Liability for Unpaid Coverage
A3724 would impose personal liability on an owner, executive officer, or executive director of an employer that fails to pay for workers' compensation coverage. It was introduced on January 13, 2026, and referred to the Assembly Labor Committee. Impact on benefits: This strengthens enforcement. By reaching individual decision-makers directly, it improves the odds that an injured worker of an uninsured employer can actually collect, protecting the benefit promise when employers cut corners on coverage.
S3144, Submission of Testimony
S3144 concerns the submission of testimony in workers' compensation claims. It was introduced on January 13, 2026, and referred to the Senate Labor Committee. Impact on benefits: as a procedural measure, its effect is indirect but real, governing how evidence reaches the judge of compensation and therefore how readily a worker can prove entitlement.
What This Means for Workers
Read together, the 2026 to 2027 package pulls in two directions. On the expansion side, workers stand to gain access to covered medical cannabis, restored September 11 responder benefits, maximum-rate benefits for volunteers, and stronger collection tools against uninsured employers. On the restriction side, workers face a possible exclusion of undocumented employees, a potentially broader intoxication bar, and a shorter filing window for provider disputes.
As of June 2026, committee referral is where the entire package still sits, with one exception. The single bill with real momentum is the September 11 responder measure, S1379, which cleared the Senate Labor Committee on a unanimous vote and now awaits fiscal review in Senate Budget and Appropriations. Nothing else has advanced past its introductory committee, and the cannabis coverage, exclusion, intoxication, and shortened medical fee limitations bills all remain in their first committees. Workers and their counsel should track the cannabis coverage bills and the exclusion bill most closely, because each would change, in opposite directions, the basic scope of who is covered and what is paid.
Sources
1. New Jersey Legislature, Bill A1023 (2026), official text: https://pub.njleg.gov/Bills/2026/A1500/1023_I1.HTM
2. New Jersey Legislature, Bill S3984 (2026), LegiScan summary: https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/S3984/2026
3. New Jersey Legislature, Bill S1379 (2026), official bill page and history: https://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bill-search/2026/S1379
4. LegiScan, NJ S1379 (2026), status and roll call (Senate Labor reported favorably 5-0, Feb. 5, 2026): https://legiscan.com/NJ/bill/S1379/2026
5. Marshall Dennehey, New Jersey Workers' Compensation Legislative Update (Mar. 2026): https://www.marshalldennehey.com/thought-leadership/new-jersey-workers-compensation-legislative-update
6. The Plastic Surgery Center, PA v. Malouf Chevrolet-Cadillac, Inc., 241 N.J. 112 (2020), CourtListener: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/4723625/the-plastic-surgery-center-pa-v-malouf-chevrolet-cadilac-inc-082502/
7. Healthesystems, New Jersey Proposes Marijuana Reimbursement in Workers' Comp: https://healthesystems.com/workerscomprehensive/new-jersey-proposes-marijuana-reimbursement-in-workers-comp-and-group-health/
8. Business Insurance, N.J. comp cannabis coverage bill reintroduced: https://www.businessinsurance.com/n-j-bill-mandating-comp-coverage-for-medical-cannabis-reintroduced/
About the Author
Jon L. Gelman of Wayne, NJ is the author of NJ Workers' Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters) and co-author of Modern Workers' Compensation Law (West-Thomson-Reuters).
Blog: Workers' Compensation | LinkedIn: JonGelman | Substack: jongelman.substack.com | Blue Sky: jongelman@bsky.social
© 2026 Jon L Gelman. All rights reserved. | Attorney Advertising | Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.
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