Workers Compensation - As enacted, adds a requirement that an award of attorneys' fees and costs incurred when an employer unreasonably denies a workers' compensation claim or unreasonably fails to timely initiate any of, the official text

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ff Slate Jennessee

                              PUBLIC CHAPTER NO. 845

                                                 SENATE BILL NO. 1981

                                                              By Briggs

                                          Substituted for: House Bill No. 2179

                                      By Lafferty, Russell, Bricken, Davis, Chism

AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 50, Chapter 6, relative to workers'
         compensation.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF TENNESSEE:

         SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Section 50-6-226(d), is amended by deleting the
subsection and substituting:

                   (d)(1) In addition to attorneys' fees provided for in this section, the court of workers'
                   compensation claims may award reasonable attorneys' fees and reasonable costs,
                   including, but not limited to, reasonable and necessary court reporter expenses and
                   expert witness fees for depositions and trials, incurred when the employer fails to
                   furnish appropriate medical, surgical, and dental treatment or care, medicine, medical
                   and surgical supplies, crutches, artificial members, and other apparatus to an
                   employee provided for in a settlement, expedited hearing order, compensation
                   hearing order, or judgment under this chapter.

                             (2) In addition to attorneys' fees provided for in this section, the court of
                   workers' compensation claims may award reasonable attorneys' fees and reasonable
                   costs, including, but not limited to, reasonable and necessary court reporter expenses
                   and expert witness fees for depositions and trials, incurred when the employer
                   unreasonably denies a claim or unreasonably fails to timely initiate any of the benefits
                   to which the employee or dependent is entitled under this chapter, including medical
                   benefits under § 50-6-204, temporary or permanent disability benefits under § 50-6-
                   207, or death benefits under § 50-6-210, if the workers' compensation judge
                   concludes, at either an expedited hearing or a compensation hearing, that the
                   employer's denial or failure to timely initiate benefits was unreasonable.

                             (3) When, at an expedited hearing, the workers' compensation judge
                   concludes under subdivision (d)(2) that the employer unreasonably denied the claim
                   or unreasonably failed to timely initiate benefits, the court may award attorneys' fees
                   and costs at that time. If, in addition, the workers' compensation judge finds that the
                   evidence of such unreasonableness is clear and convincing, then any award of
                   attorneys' fees and costs under subdivision (d)(2) must not be deferred to a
                   compensation hearing. The interlocutory nature of an expedited hearing order does
                   not, standing alone, serve as a basis to deny or defer an award of attorneys' fees and
                   costs under this subdivision (d)(3).

                             (4) Subdivisions (d)(2) and (3) apply to injuries that occur between July 1,
                   2026, and June 30, 2030.

          SECTION 2. This act takes effect July 1, 2026, the public welfare requiring it, and applies to
injuries occurring on or after that date.
         SENATE BILL NO. 1981

PASSED:  April 13, 2026

                         - ' l \hc..~R..A..~ND\Y\Muc'l-tJALLY

                               SPEAKER OF THE SENATE

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                         CAMERON SEXTON, SPEAKER
                         HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

APPROVED this -:l7t!J;. day of /dpn'(   2026

         ~ l u . -- BILL LEE, GOVERNOR