48-144.04. Reports; penalties for not filing; statutes of limitations not to run until report furnished.

Any employer, workers' compensation insurer, or risk management pool who fails, neglects, or refuses to file any report required of him or her by the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Court shall be guilty of a Class II misdemeanor for each such failure, neglect, or refusal. It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to act as attorney for the state. In addition to the penalty, where an employer, workers' compensation insurer, or risk management pool has been given notice, or the employer, workers' compensation insurer, or risk management pool has knowledge, of any injury or death of an employee and fails, neglects, or refuses to file a report thereof, the limitations in section 48-137 and for injuries occurring before December 1, 1997, the limitations in section 48-128 shall not begin to run against the claim of the injured employee or his or her dependents entitled to compensation or against the State of Nebraska on behalf of the Workers' Compensation Trust Fund, or in favor of either the employer, workers' compensation insurer, or risk management pool until such report shall have been furnished as required by the compensation court.

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Under this section, an employer has sufficient knowledge of an employee's injury if a reasonable person would conclude that an employee's injury is potentially compensable and that the employer should therefore investigate the matter further. Risor v. Nebraska Boiler, 277 Neb. 679, 765 N.W.2d 170 (2009).

This section establishes when the statute of limitations begins to run if an initial report required by section 48-144.01 is not filed, but this section does not provide for tolling of an already-running statute of limitations when and if subsequent reports are not filed. Dawes v. Wittrock Sandblasting & Painting, 266 Neb. 526, 667 N.W.2d 167 (2003).