Practice Areas

• Workers' Compensation
• Personal Injury
• Social Security Disability

Firm News

• Workers Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission shows we beat both AIG and Zurich in proving that this truck driver for a brick company had two separate accidents which both injured his knee, ultimately disabling him....
• 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 sanctions against the insurance company for failing to accept a claim when our client, an insulation installer, was in an auto accident....
• Workers' Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission: The Vocational Rehabilitation Professional, from Page Rehabilitation, had a "strained interpretation of suitable employment and the duration of her proposed job search raises serious questions as to whether her objective was to benefit plaintiff or defendants."...
• 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....
• 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....
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: OTP Lawyers stepped in to save an injured plumber whose original lawyer couldn't get the job done against Key Risk....
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: Facing down the Argonaut workers' compensation adjuster in a disputed carpal tunnel case...
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: In this case with Kemper Insurance company the NCIC found that the employer, Cintas, "schemed" to fire plaintiff while she was on light duty....

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Library

Workers' Compensation

• Workers' Comp Tips
• My Employer Says They Don't Have Workers Comp Insurance
• Ten Ways to Wreck Your Workers' Compensation Claim, Online Edition
• What is the Present Value of Money and Why Should I Care?
• Five Ways Doctors Can Hurt Your Case

Personal Injury

• How Uninsured Motorist Insurance protects you in a personal injury claim.

Social Security Disability

• Five Social Security Disability Tips
• What on Earth is a Workers' Compensation Offset?
• What People Applying For Disability Need To Know

General

• The Ten Worst Insurance Companies

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Testimonials

"From the initial interview until the check came I was treated like family. I have and will continue to recommend you to friends and family."

"I was impressed with your firm from the beginning... Although I'm sure you are totally busy with cases I always felt as though mine were the only one you were handling. All my calls were promptly returned and I really appreciate that."

"You were right up front about what the workers' compensation adjuster would try to do. I did not know anything about workers' compensation laws. I think your firm did an amazing job for me and my family."

"You were abale to spot the problems immediately and fix them."

"There's no way I could have gotten the same results without your help."

"Your office a very, very profesional office. You have always treated me with great respect, honesty, and integrity."

"You absolutely are the experts in Workers' Compensation law. You never made me feel foolish."

"You know every aspect of workers' comp and used that to my benefit."

"You were very knowledgeable and treated me with utmost respect."

"I never had another worry after hiring you."

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Eight Misconceptions About Workers' Compensation

1. Workers’ Compensation is simple. If you have a case that doesn’t take you out of work, require surgery, or hurt your ability to do your regular job and pay your bills, then yes, it’s simple. But if you don’t fall into that category the workers’ comp system is a minefield that was laid out by insurance companies and employers. One wrong step and your claim can well go up in smoke. The OTP Solution: Educate, educate, educate. We want our clients, and any other injured workers, to understand the laws which control their case. We believe that you will make wiser choices if you grasp what is at stake.
2. The Industrial Commission will take care of me. The Industrial Commission is a bureaucracy which processes claims very, very slowly. If your claim is denied it will likely take at least 12 months for the Industrial Commission to rule on your case. If that’s how the Industrial Commission operates when an injured worker has no income and is receiving no medical treatment, think how slowly they’ll move when the adjuster decides to just stop your checks for a while or refuse to authorize an MRI. The OTP Solution: We aggressively press the Industrial Commission to do the right thing. This means filing motions regularly and, more importantly, going to hearings frequently. We take far more cases to hearings than any other firm around.
3. Everyone needs a lawyer. No they don’t. The OTP Solution: We’re some of the only attorneys who will tell you that. Everyone needs information – freely offered without strings attached. If an attorney won’t do that they’re likely thinking more about their wallet than about your case. If your claim is denied you’ll need a lawyer. If your claim is accepted you may not; generally if you’re going to have a permanent disability, may not be able to return to your regular job, or will have an operation then it’s worthwhile talking with a lawyer. No lawyer should every charge you for just talking. We don’t.
4. My employer will look out for me. Most decisions in a workers’ comp claim are made by the insurance company and NOT by the employer. In fact the fine print of the insurance policy requires the employer to do what the adjuster asks. So even if your boss thinks you’re the greatest employee ever it is the insurance adjuster who is calling the shots. The OTP Solution: We maintain a healthy skepticism of employer’s offers to make work for you or to accommodate your restrictions. We understand that good jobs are tough to come by so we’re not going to poke our finger in your employer’s eye just for fun. Having said that naively trusting an employer who has a track record of firing injured workers is foolish.
5. If I hold out the Industrial Commission will award me a lot of money. Sadly, this isn’t the case. Unless you return to your old job or work at your old pay scale the Industrial Commission will only award you benefits to be paid out one week at a time. They do not give lump sum awards except for very, very small ones when a person is still working. The OTP Solution: Because the laws are so stingy we don’t let adjusters cut any corners at all. You simply cannot afford that. Plus if they can get away with robbing you of a few bucks here and a little more there by the time it comes to settle your case they’ll know they can take advantage of you.
6. I’ll be fired if I get a lawyer. This myth is spread by adjusters, employers, and some of their favorite doctors. We believe it to be completely false. In fact, it has been our experience that employers do NOT fire claimants who have attorneys – it’s too easy for the fired worker to bring a lawsuit when they’ve already got a lawyer. The OTP Solution: Like we said above, we’re not out to cause problems. We’re like bodyguards – by letting our presence be known in a quiet but firm manner most problems are avoided. Our reputation is known so widely that most employers know there’s no use in playing games with our clients.
7. Denied claims cannot be won. This isn’t true at all. You will have a difficult time of it but we’ve won scores of denied claims. We’ve taken some extremely difficult cases to the Industrial Commission, the Court of Appeals, and even to the Supreme Court, and won them. The OTP Solution: We carefully help clients with denied cases look at the facts of their case, compare it to North Carolina law, advise them of their options and then execute the plan.
8. Never rock the workers’ comp boat. Wrong again. Comp is the classic “nice guys finish last” area of the law. Some of the most deserving people we’ve ever seen come to us after they’ve been horribly victimized by insurance adjusters. When we ask why they’re coming to us now the response is usually “I didn’t want to be one of those kinds of people. The kind who go and hire lawyers.” We’re not offended by this, but a lot of trouble could have been spared if they hired us sooner. The OTP Solution: Teddy Roosevelt put it wisely “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” We don’t pick fights, but when we have to fight we do so to win.