ORS 656.591: Election not to bring action operates as assignment of cause of action; repayments to department by paying agency.

(1) An election made pursuant to ORS 656.578 not to proceed against an employer or third person operates as an assignment to the paying agency of the cause of action, if any, of a worker or the beneficiaries or legal representative of a deceased worker against the employer or third person, and the paying agency may bring action against the employer or third person in the name of the worker or other beneficiaries. (2) Any sum the paying agency recovers in excess of the expenses the paying agency incurred in making the recovery and the amount the paying agency expended for compensation, first aid or other medical, surgical or hospital service, together with the present value of the monthly payments of compensation to which the worker or other beneficiaries may be entitled under this chapter, must be paid to the worker or other beneficiaries. (3) A paying agency shall repay the Department of Consumer and Business Services for any expenditures from the Consumer and Business Services Fund, the Self-Insured Employer Adjustment Reserve, the Self-Insured Employer Group Adjustment Reserve or the Workers’ Benefit Fund that the department makes, together with the present value of any reasonably expected future expenditures from the funds or reserves that the department may make, to reimburse the paying agency for the paying agency’s costs and to compensate or pay other costs of a worker’s claim because of a self-insured employer’s or self-insured employer group’s insolvency, default or decertification. [Formerly 656.320; 2017 c.69 §2]