§ 72-1019 — COMPENSATION BENEFITS

(1) A claimant is entitled to weekly compensation benefits when the claimant has a total actual loss of wages due to injury as a result of criminally injurious conduct. During the time the claimant seeks such weekly benefits, the claimant, as a result of such injury, must have no reasonable prospect of being regularly employed in the normal labor market. The weekly benefit amount is sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%) of the wages received at the time of the criminally injurious conduct, subject to a maximum of one hundred seventy-five dollars ($175). Weekly compensation payments shall be made at the end of each two (2) week period. No weekly compensation payments may be paid for the first week after the criminally injurious conduct occurred, but if total actual loss of wages continues for one (1) week, weekly compensation payments shall be paid from the date the wage loss began. Weekly compensation payments shall continue until the claimant has a reasonable prospect of being regularly employed in the normal labor market.
(2) The commission may order payment of reasonable expenses actually incurred by the claimant for reasonable services by a physician or surgeon, reasonable hospital services and medicines, mental health counseling and care, and such other treatment as may be approved by the commission for the injuries suffered due to criminally injurious conduct. Payment for the costs of forensic and medical examinations of alleged victims of sexual assault performed for the purposes of gathering evidence for possible prosecution, after collections from any federal or federally financed third party who has liability, shall be made by the commission; provided however that payment for the costs of forensic and medical examinations of alleged victims under eighteen (18) years of age shall be made by the commission after collections from any third party who has liability. The commission shall establish a procedure for summary processing of such claims.
(3) (a) The dependents of a victim who is killed as a result of criminally injurious conduct are entitled to receive aggregate weekly benefits amounting to sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%) of the wages received at the time of the criminally injurious conduct causing the death, subject to a maximum of one hundred seventy-five dollars ($175) per week. Weekly compensation payments shall be made at the end of each two (2) week period.
(b) Benefits under paragraph (a) of this subsection shall be paid to the spouse for the benefit of the spouse and other dependents unless the commission determines that other payment arrangements should be made. If a spouse dies or remarries, benefits under paragraph (a) of this subsection shall cease to be paid to the spouse but shall continue to be paid to the other dependents as long as their dependent status continues.
(4) Reasonable funeral and burial or cremation expenses of the victim, together with actual expenses of transportation of the victim’s body, shall be paid in an amount not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000) if all other collateral sources have properly paid such expenses but have not covered all such expenses.
(5) (a) Compensation payable to a victim and all of the victim’s dependents in cases of the victim’s death, because of injuries suffered due to an act or acts of criminally injurious conduct involving the same offender and occurring within a six (6) month period, may not exceed twenty-five thousand dollars ($25,000) in the aggregate.
(b) The limitation of paragraph (a) of this subsection is subject to the further limitation that payments for mental health treatment received as a result of the victim’s injury may not exceed two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) unless the industrial commission finds extenuating circumstances. If the commission finds a victim to have extenuating circumstances as defined in section 72-1003, Idaho Code, the victim is eligible for payments up to the maximum benefit allowed under paragraph (a) of this subsection. The commission shall reevaluate the victim’s qualifications for extenuating circumstances not less often than annually.
(6) Compensation benefits are not payable for pain and suffering or property damage.
(7) (a) A person who has suffered injury as a result of criminally injurious conduct and, as a result of such injury, has no reasonable prospect of being regularly employed in the normal labor market, who was employable but was not employed at the time of such injury, may in the discretion of the commission be awarded weekly compensation benefits in an amount determined by the commission not to exceed one hundred fifty dollars ($150) per week. Weekly compensation payments shall continue until the claimant has a reasonable prospect of being regularly employed in the normal labor market or for a shorter period as determined by the commission. The claimant shall be awarded benefits as provided in subsection (2) of this section.
(b) The dependents of a victim who is killed as a result of criminally injurious conduct and who was employable but not employed at the time of death may, in the discretion of the commission, be awarded, in an aggregate amount payable to all dependents, a sum not to exceed one hundred fifty dollars ($150) per week, which shall be payable in the manner and for the period provided by subsection (3)(b) of this section or for such shorter period as determined by the commission. The claimant shall be awarded benefits as provided in subsection (4) of this section.
(c) Compensation payable to a victim or a victim’s dependents under this subsection may not exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000), and the limitations of subsection (5) of this section apply to compensation under this subsection.
(8) Amounts payable as weekly compensation may not be commuted to a lump sum and may not be paid less frequently than every two (2) weeks.
(9) (a) Subject to the limitations in paragraphs (b) and (c) of this subsection, the spouse, parent, grandparent, child, grandchild, brother or sister of a victim who is killed, kidnapped, sexually assaulted or subjected to domestic violence or child injury is entitled to reimbursement for mental health treatment received as a result of such criminally injurious conduct.
(b) Total payments made under paragraph (a) of this subsection may not exceed five hundred dollars ($500) for each person or one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) for a family.
(c) With regard to claims filed pursuant to this section, in order for family members of victims of crime to be entitled to benefits, the victim of the crime must also have been awarded benefits for the crime itself.
(10) A claimant or a spouse, parent, child or sibling of a claimant or victim may be reimbursed for his or her expenses for necessary travel incurred in connection with obtaining benefits covered pursuant to this chapter and in accordance with rules of the commission.

Legislative History

[72-1019, added 1986, ch. 337, sec. 1, p. 830; am. 1991, ch. 246, sec. 1, p. 601; am. 1993, ch. 278, sec. 3, p. 941; am. 2001, ch. 144, sec. 2, p. 512; am. 2002, ch. 136, sec. 7, p. 378; am. 2005, ch. 109, sec. 1, p. 359; am. 2006, ch. 291, sec. 2, p. 897; am. 2018, ch. 249, sec. 2, p. 578; am. 2020, ch. 82, sec. 40, p. 214.]