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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I have an existing case and my vocational rehabilitation professional tells me to downplay my limitations on applications and in interviews. That's ok, isn't it?

A:

Absolutely not. That is one of the worst things you could possible do and the vocational rehabilitation professional knows it. Not only is it going to cut down the value of your current claim if you get a job which you cannot successfully hold, it is going to eliminate the possibility of having a new claim if you are injured on the new job.

For example, your current treating doctor limits you to lifting over 30 pounds because you have a back injury. Your vocational rehab person sends you off to one of those home improvement stores to apply for a job. Technically all employees are supposed to be medically cleared to lift 50 pounds but your vocational rehab provider assures you that in practice this isn't true and that under the Americans with Disability Act the new employer will accommodate you. So you apply and get the job. Your current checks get cut off because you have returned to work. The first week on the job you have lift 50 pounds and feel an onset of pain in your back.

What happens now? The voc rehab professional probably gets a thank you card from your adjuster. The onset of pain is the definition of a new back claim. So not only has your adjuster cut your checks off, but she can now also cut off your medical care because the reason you have to see a doctor is because of pain - and the pain arose in the course and scope of your new employment.

Well that's not the end of the world is it? Cannot you just file a claim against the new employer? No. That's the genius of the new law and the vocational rehab professional's scheme. Because you knowingly applied for a job, which you couldn't physically do, you are barred from bringing a claim for injuries arising on that new job. The legislature specifically left out any protection for injured workers who are told by their adjusters and vocational caseworkers to downplay their disabilities.

Can this get any worse? Oh yes it can. This portion of the law applies to cases currently in existence. And there has been some discussion that it could apply to your current employer bringing you back to work to a new position. Thus your employer could bring you back to work, you reinjure yourself, and then your employer get out of paying for the new workers' comp claim by contending they didn't actually understand the extent of your restrictions.