Workers' Compensation - What to do when you get hurt on the job

Workers’ Compensation - Protect Your Rights 

Like most Americans, you work hard for a living – you work because your family depends on you, your company depends on you, and you want to contribute to the economy of our great nation. 

But what happens to you when you get hurt on the job?

Your company may love you but they have a workers compensation insurance company handling your case and making decisions that are critically important to you - impacting your health, medical care and finances.

And that insurance company is looking out for its own interests - not yours. 

After years of hard work and making money for your company, the insurance company may be looking at your case with suspicion or indifference.  They may try to control your medical care, influence your doctors, pay you benefits much lower than you should get, or deny your claim altogether. 

We're here to help you by providing information, helping solve your problems and protecting your rights.  That's all we do.  

We only help people.  We don't represent insurance companies.  


Won't the workers’ compensation insurance company take care of you?


We published an entire book on D.C. workers compensation because we were sick of all the misinformation out there - a lot of it coming from the very insurance companies that are supposed to pay workers’ compensation benefits when you can't work or provide for your dependents if you are killed on the job.  

These days many employers and their insurance companies make money by limiting the amount of compensation you can receive, what kind of medical treatment the insurance company will pay for, and how long you will receive benefits. 

And they never tell you what you need to do to protect your rights.  

They may tell you they require a signed authorization (which allows them to get all of your medical information since birth) to start your benefits or tell you they require a written statement about your injury.  They try to get you to record a statement or telephone interview that could later be used against you.

They may even have a "nurse case manager" come to your house to see if she can "help" with your medical treatment and your case.  And she will help - the insurance company. 

They will deny your claim if you don’t file your paperwork in time, or they may deny your claim because they say they don't have all your medical reports (even though they have the hospital reports and doctors' notes that say you fractured your ankle when a scaffold collapsed and it was witnessed by 3 other employees and a foreman took you to the hospital).

They may hire a private investigator to secretly videotape you looking for anything to deny your claim.  They try to get you to go see one of their doctors.  They find ways to pay the least amount possible for your medical treatment. 

And if you were injured in Washington D.C., the insurance company may try to pay you a lower compensation amount under the Maryland or Virginia laws.
And your employer may have changed its attitude as well.  

Once you're hurt on the job, they may find fault with everything you do or everything you've ever done.  They could offer you a light-duty position so that you can go back to work sooner – but what if they don't accomodate your doctor's restrictions?   And what if you refuse to accept that position – could your benefits be cut off?  Or, if you are back at work after an injury and your employer asks you to do more than your doctor said you could – and you agree to do it – could you lose your right to compensation and medical treatment?.
The bottom line is the insurance company knows the law and they use it to their advantage.  Do you?  You can probably see now why it is so important to have somebody on your side who can protect your rights for you and your family.

If you think we are the right firm for you, call us today. 

But don't wait.  Sometimes we have to turn people away because they have made mistakes in their case (without knowing or meaning to) that we just can't fix.

Don't let that happen to you and your family.


WARNING:

If you were seriously hurt at work don't talk to any insurance adjuster, nurse case manager, give a recorded statement or sign anything until you read Protect Your Rights:  The Injured Worker's Guide to D.C. Workers' Compensation or talk to an experienced lawyer.

Protect Your Rights is a 75 page book on D.C. workers compensation and is available free to anyone who has been hurt at work or any family member of anyone hurt on the job. 

Written by nationally recognized, Board Certified trial attorney Frank R. Kearney, this book explains your rights and responsibilities - everything the insurance company won't do.



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