You hurt yourself on the job, reported the injury, saw the company doctor, and filed a workers’ compensation claim. Then things changed. Your supervisor stopped checking in. Your light-duty assignment shifted three times in a week. Or you got the call directly. The position has been eliminated. Performance hasn’t been where it needs to be. The company is restructuring.
If a Maryland employer fired you in close proximity to a workers’ compensation claim, you may have a separate cause of action that has nothing to do with your underlying injury and everything to do with the firing itself. Wrongful Termination Lawyers Maryland injured workers consult deal with this scenario regularly, and the protection they invoke is Md. Code, Labor & Employment § 9-1105.
What § 9-1105 Actually Says
The Maryland workers’ compensation anti-retaliation statute is short and direct: an employer may not discharge a covered employee solely because that employee files a claim under the Workers’ Compensation Act.
That single sentence creates a separate civil cause of action distinct from your workers’ compensation claim. You can pursue benefits through the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission while pursuing a wrongful discharge case in circuit court for the firing itself. The two tracks run in parallel.
The “Solely” Problem That Trips Up Most Workers
The word “solely” in § 9-1105 is where many injured employees, and even some lawyers, get confused. Maryland courts have read it strictly. If the employer can articulate any other arguably legitimate reason for the firing (performance, attendance, restructuring, position elimination), the case becomes about whether that reason is real or a cover for retaliation.
The analysis starts to look a lot like pretext analysis in discrimination cases. A court isn’t asking whether the workers’ compensation claim was one of several reasons. It’s asking whether the stated reason holds up. If it falls apart under scrutiny, the inference is that the claim filing was the real driver. In practice, a § 9-1105 case is almost always built around showing the employer’s stated reason is fabricated, exaggerated, or inconsistently applied compared to how other employees were treated.
How Wrongful Termination Lawyers Maryland Workers Trust See Retaliation Show Up
The textbook scenario is termination immediately after a claim is filed. That happens, but the timing is more often staggered to make the connection harder to prove. Patterns that show up repeatedly:
- A firing weeks or months after the injury but right after the claim is approved or an award is issued
- No light-duty work offered, despite the employer previously accommodating similar restrictions for others
- Sudden negative performance write-ups after the claim is filed, when prior reviews were strong
- A buildup of minor policy violations used to justify termination after the worker returns
- “Position eliminated” announcements that happen to affect only the injured employee
The unifying thread is a paper trail that doesn’t match what was happening before the claim.
What Evidence Carries the Most Weight
A § 9-1105 case is built from records showing two things: the firing was tied to the claim, and the employer’s stated explanation doesn’t hold up. The records that matter most:
- The original injury report and claim filing documents
- Communications with HR or supervisors about the injury and the claim
- Performance reviews from the year or two before the injury
- Written policies on light duty, accommodation, and return-to-work
- Records of how other injured employees were treated
- The termination notice and any documentation used to justify it
If you sense retaliation is coming, save what you can to a personal email or cloud account. Once a termination happens, company-system access typically ends within hours.
Damages You Can Recover
A successful § 9-1105 claim can include economic and non-economic damages. The economic side covers lost wages from termination through trial or settlement, plus lost benefits (health insurance, retirement contributions, anticipated raises). Front pay may be available where reinstatement isn’t practical. Non-economic damages cover emotional distress, and Maryland courts have awarded meaningful sums when the firing made physical recovery harder. Punitive damages require showing actual malice, a higher bar.
Deadlines and the Procedural Path
A § 9-1105 wrongful discharge claim is a civil tort action in Maryland circuit court. The three-year statute of limitations under Md. Code, Cts. & Jud. Proc. § 5-101 applies, running from the date of termination. Evidence ages faster than that, so the practical window is shorter.
Unlike claims under Title VII or the Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act, you don’t have to file a charge with the EEOC or the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights first. You go straight to court, typically in the circuit court for the county where you worked. Your workers’ compensation claim continues through the Workers’ Compensation Commission on a separate track.
When to Bring in an Attorney
Many injured workers don’t learn § 9-1105 exists until they describe what happened to an employment attorney. Workers’ compensation lawyers handle the benefits claim itself and sometimes flag the retaliation question, but not always. If you were fired around the time of an injury or claim and the employer’s reason doesn’t match the record, that’s a separate conversation worth having quickly. Most Maryland employment attorneys offer free consultations and take these cases on contingency.
What This Comes Down To
An on-the-job injury is not a firing offense in Maryland, and filing for benefits you were entitled to under state law isn’t either. If you were terminated under circumstances that suggest the claim itself was the real reason, you have rights that exist independently of your underlying workers’ compensation case. The Wrongful Termination Lawyers Maryland injured workers rely on at The Mundaca Law Firm can review the timeline, identify which legal claims fit your facts, and tell you whether § 9-1105 applies. Contact the firm to talk through what happened.—
