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- When the injured worker returned to work he was immediately fired...
- Workers' Compensation: The IC ruled that the employer, who willingly paid the medical claim and workers comp for the employee's foot injury, must also pay for pain management because this injury aggravated the employee's pre-existing fibromyalgia and hypertension and was now considered a chronic condition. Although it is tough to win these claims we can usually do it if we the treating physician will agree that the pre-existing condition is worse now than it was and that this change is due to the worker's comp accident....
- Workers' Compensation: The Industrial Commission denied the employee's claim for temporary partial disability compensation. The Commission ruled that the reduction in wages that our client received was because of problems with the company's workload due to the economy. It was determined that he didn't receive less pay because of his injury or from the less-paying job within the company that he had to take because of the injury....
- Workers' Compensation: The NC Industrial Commission determined that the employer was required to pay our client's medical bills and also continue workers' compensation payments until our client could find a job with his limited physical capabilities. The employer was unable to find work for him at the company and he was fired, which was unacceptable, although it was explained by the employer as happening because of excessive absences....
- Workers' Compensation: The North Carolina Industrial Commission threatened to hold CNA in contempt of court because they refused to authorize the medical tests which would prove that the plaintiff was unable to do his job. This was a classic example of an adjuster getting an opinion from a reliable doctor and then refusing any other evaluation which could help the injured worker....
- Workers Compensation: The North Carolina Industrial Commission held that National Benefits Association had wrongfully denied this claim for more than a year...but only when the Industrial Commission finally heard all the evidence -- that the employer admitted that they knew the plaintiff was hurt, that they had sent him to a doctor but didn't follow his direction, and that there was no way our client could do his job with his severely-injured back....
- Workers' Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission says Liberty Mutual must provide yardcare and housecleaning to an injured brickmason....
- Workers' Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission rules that a restaurant dishwasher who slipped and fell, and was taken straight to an emergency room has proven that he was injured on the job....
- Workers' Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission finds that Diebold and Broadspire MUST pay weekly benefits even after they fired the injured worker from her "light duty" job....
- Workers' Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission rules against The Hartford Insurance Company and holds that a nurse who was still on her employer's property when she was hit by a car is within the course and scope of her employment and entitled to workers' compensation benefits....
Library
Workers' Compensation
- Psssst! Who's that following you?
- NCIC Form 25T: Mileage Reimbursement form
- Form 28T: Notice of Termination of Compensation by Reason of Trial Return to Work
- Form 33R: Response to Request that Claim Be Assigned for Hearing
- 10 Things Your Insurance Adjuster Won't Tell You (download)
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Workers' Compensation
Worst North Carolina Industrial Commission ruling I've seen lately
I often remark that I don't understand some of the rulings from the Industrial Commission. Here's an example of one I saw recently.
The attorney for the insurance company, GAB Robbins, arranged for my client to be seen for an Independent Medical Examination with a neurosurgeon. The visit went well, according to both the rehabilitation nurse and our client, but the doctor was very slow in producing the medical records from the visit. I requested the records, the defense attorney requested the records, and the rehab nurse requested them. None of us got anything from the doctor.
While this was frustrating for all of us it certainly appeared that the delay was based solely in the doctor's office. Despite this the attorney for GAB Robbins wrote to the Industrial Commission asking that our client, the injured worker, be ordered to produce the records within 15 days or face termination of her weekly checks. To her credit the defense attorney for GAB Robbins told the Industrial Commission that we had made multiple efforts to obtain the records to no avail.
To our amazement the North Carolina Industrial Commission promptly filed an Order stating that if Dr. So-and-so didn't produce the records within 15 days the injured workers checks could be terminated. How this threat against the injured worker was going to motivate the defendant's hand-picked doctor wasn't stated. Allow me to be very clear here: I don't think the Industrial Commission was trying to be unfair. The problem is that career government types don't understand the real world of dealing with doctors, adjusters, and all. That's how a skilled defense attorney can take advantage of the situation to their clients' benefit.
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FAQs
Workers' Compensation
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Case Studies
Workers' Compensation
What Can Go Wrong with a Return to Light Duty Work.
How a Functional Capacities Evaluation Can Wreck a Claim.
An Example of a Workers' Comp Adjuster Manipulating the Recorded Statement.