Practice Areas

• Workers' Compensation
• Personal Injury
• Social Security Disability

Firm News

• 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....
  

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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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DISCLAIMER: Please note that every case is different and these verdicts and settlements, while accurate, do not represent what we may obtain for you in your case.

A Favorite Trick of Adjuster's: Send the Notice They Want to Cut Your Checks to the Wrong Address. That Way You Cannot Object to It.

The Case: "Marc" was a construction worker who was carrying several long sections of pipe with a co-worker when his partner lost his balance and dropped his end. Marc struggled to throw the heavy pipes away from himself but badly twisted his knee in the process. Although this was an obvious interruption of the normal work routine and directly caused an injury to Marc, the adjuster took nearly six weeks to turn on his checks. Marc wiped out his savings and had to borrow money from family to make his rent, utility and car payments.

Marc underwent arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a torn ligament in his knee. His insurance company provided a rehabilitation nurse to coordinate the medical treatment. She asked to meet Marc at his house, but he told her that he'd moved in with his girlfriend in an effort to save money. The rehabilitation nurse routinely called Marc at his girlfriend's house and sent letters to him at that address.

His employer had never had anything even close to a light duty position but that didn't stop the insurance company from sending the rehabilitation nurse to the doctor with a promise of light duty work. The doctor told Marc that he was inclined to send him back to work on light duty as long as there was no heavy lifting involved. Hearing this, the rehabilitation nurse gave the doctor a letter from the employer stating that there was light duty available for Marc at whatever restrictions the doctor imposed. The doctor limited Marc to no lifting over twenty pounds.

On the way home from the doctor's office, Marc called his boss and asked about the light duty job. He wasn't exactly surprised when he learned that the employer wanted him to do his regular job but that help would be provided if he was really going to be a wimp about it. Marc decided not to report to work the next day. Neither the employer nor the insurance company contacted him about the job again. A month later his workers comp checks stopped.

Marc immediately called the adjuster asking what was up. The adjuster advised him that the Industrial Commission had granted permission to terminate the checks after she filed a Form 24. When Marc said he never saw the Form 24 the adjuster laughed, and said "I guess that's why you didn't respond to it."

Here's what we did: Marc tried to work this out with the adjuster for several weeks before coming to us. By this time, he was just about broke again. The Industrial Commission gave us a copy of the Form 24, and we immediately spotted the problem. The adjuster had sent the Form 24 to Marc's old address.

We asked the Industrial Commission to order a reinstatement of Marc's checks. The adjuster objected and claimed that she had no idea that Marc had moved. When we showed the Industrial Commission the rehab nurse's reports referring to the change of address and listing the new one, the adjuster claimed she had never actually read that part of the report. Unbelievably, the Industrial Commission initially took the insurance company's side and ruled that because Marc had never told the adjuster directly of the move, the Form 24 could be sent to the last "official" address.

We appealed this horrendous decision. Just prior to the hearing on the appeal we were able to settle Marc's claim for all of the back pay and some money to carry him into the future. We were bitterly disappointed with the Industrial Commission's bias against injured workers, but we and Marc agreed that the settlement was his best option under the circumstances.