Practice Areas

• Workers' Compensation
• Personal Injury
• Social Security Disability
• Employment Law

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.

If You Go Back to Work on Light Duty, Do You Think the Adjuster Will Let the Doctor Take You Out Again?

The Case: "Jerry" worked in the lumber department of a large home improvement store. He injured his back loading bags of concrete onto a cart of a customer. He immediately reported the injury to his superiors. The employer immediately sent him to their company doctor to give a urine sample before they would investigate the claim any further. Once it was proven that he had no drugs in his system, the insurance company permitted him to go through a course of treatment. After several weeks of physical therapy, Jerry's doctor suggested that he return to work in a light duty position. Jerry was bored stiff from sitting at home and welcomed the opportunity to return to work and see his friends there.

Although the employer had assured the doctor that Jerry would only have to lift 10 pounds, they sent Jerry back to his regular position in the lumber department. On his second day back, a customer asked Jerry to help load some boards onto a cart. Jerry looked quickly for someone else but could find no one. At that point, he decided to help the increasingly impatient customer. As soon as he did so, he knew he'd made a mistake. His back hurt more than ever.

Jerry immediately went to his boss and asked to see the doctor. The employer said they would get back to him. The next morning Jerry couldn't even get out of bed. He called in, but his boss was non-committal. After two weeks out of work with no income and no word of a doctor's visit, Jerry came to see us.

Here's what we did: We immediately called the adjuster and demanded a return visit to the doctor. She agreed that this was necessary, and said she'd schedule it. We confirmed this conversation with a follow-up letter sent by fax. We also wrote to the doctor asking that he write Jerry out of work on a Form 28U. After several days, the adjuster claimed she had been trying to schedule the appointment but that the doctor was unavailable. For his part, the doctor indicated that because this was a workers' compensation claim, he would only see Jerry if the adjuster wanted him to. The doctor didn't feel comfortable writing Jerry out of work without actually seeing him.

We filed a motion with the Industrial Commission to force the insurance company to authorize the doctor's visit. We attached a copy of our letter to the adjuster, our letter to the doctor and an affidavit of a staff member regarding the doctor's comments regarding not being able to complete the form. The Industrial Commission ordered the insurance company to send Jerry to the doctor. The insurance company appealed this order. We then went back to the Industrial Commission for an order requiring the adjuster to comply pending an appeal. The adjuster attempted to get out of this by seeking a stay of the initial order. We filed an opposition to this, complete with all the relevant correspondence. Fortunately the motion for a stay was denied, and Jerry went to the doctor, who wrote him out of work.

Unfortunately, however, under laws which heavily favor the employers and their insurance companies, the doctor could only write Jerry out of work effective the day of the office visit. This was nearly eight weeks after Jerry originally asked to see the doctor.