Edelstein Payne North Carolina Workers Compensation Injured Worker Tips

www.edelsteinpayne.com Whitfield v. Laboratory Corporation of America, 581 S.E.2d 778 (June 17, 2003) Laboratory Corporation of America (employer) and Hartford-ITT Specialty Risk Services (collectively defendants) appeal from an opinion and award of the North Carolina Industrial Commission (the Commission) entered 18 January 2002 granting Angela Whitfield (plaintiff) additional disability benefits, along with past and future medical expenses for injuries plaintiff sustained in a slip and fall accident in her employment with Laboratory Corporation of America. Plaintiff filed a cross-appeal dated 20 February 2002 as to the Commission's denial of her request for attorney's fees for defendants' failure to provide plaintiff reasonable and necessary medical treatment. A deputy commissioner entered an opinion and award on 31 July 2000 concluding that plaintiff was (1) not entitled to any further temporary total disability compensation beyond what she had receiv...

www.raleighworkerscompensation.com Why are Valid Workers’ Comp Claims Often Denied?  Valid Workers' Comp Claims are Often Denied for flimsy details.  When a worker is injured on the job, they assume that they are going to be covered here in North Carolina by workers' compensation, and their medical bills are going to be taken care of, and they may get some weekly disability benefits.  Unfortunately, claims adjusters for insurance companies regularly deny claims that should not be denied.  Claims that should be claimed compensable.  They do this I believe to save the insurance company money, because they don't pay out then for the medical expenses or the weekly benefits.  Unfortunately, all too often working people who get their claim denied think that the system has just once again messed them over.  They go on with their lives without contacting a lawyer.  That is a mistake.  Many of the claims that are denied are in fact valid claims, a...

www.raleighworkerscompensation.com Is it just me, or does the NC Workers Compensation System cause injured employees frustration?  It is not just you, the NC workers Compensation System does cause many injured employees frustration. If you were injured on the job, and particularly if your injury is accepted as compensable, and you've been out of work for an extended time, more likely than not you have experienced lots of frustration with the workers' compensation system .  That unfortunately, is the way the system is administrated, administered, and the medical care and the benefits workers are entitled to are not always provided in a speedy fashion. We, myself and my associates in the law firm represent injured workers all over the state of North Carolina.  We understand the ins and outs of the workers comp system, and the annoyance and frustration it causes for injured workers.  If you've have an injury on the job, and are experiencing the type of frustra...

https://raleighworkerscompensation.com In this video, attorney M. Travis Payne explains: "There are really two different types of medical problems that can arise on the job that are covered by workers compensation. One is injury by accident. The other which is more difficult factually and medically is an occupational disease. Occupational diseases are often what is called "repetitive motion claims". Someone who has typed on a keyboard for 20 years, and ends up with carpal tunnel syndrome in both their hands and wrists. Someone who has done the same motion on an assembly line. 200 times a minute with their leg, and does that for several years and their knee gives out. There's no accident there, but those cases can be compensable as workers' comp cases. It requires very strong medical testimony from the treating doctors. If you have such a situation, and you have submitted a claim to workers' comp and it has been denied, and you want a free consul...

https://raleighworkerscompensation.com Does NC Workers' Compensation law require injuries be caused by an Accident?  NC Workers' Compensation law does require most injuries on the job to be caused by an accident. Working people in North Carolina assume that when they get hurt on the job they will be covered by workers' compensation.  They fill out an accident report.  Unfortunately, they do not understand that for most injuries on the job, the North Carolina workers' compensation law requires that the injury be caused by an accident. Claims adjusters for insurance companies will say, "Slip, Trip or Fall".  In fact there are other things that amount that amount to accidents that could be used to make an injury compensable under the law.  But one thing that happens after you file your accident report, almost always a claims adjuster from an insurance company will call you, and may take a recorded statement.  The claims adjuster will ask a series of qu...

https://raleighworkerscompensation.com I was hurt at work, should I sign the medical release document the insurance company sent?  If you were hurt at work  DO NOT Sign the Medical Release form the Insurance company sends you: If you are injured on the job, and file an accident report, you will almost certainly receive some correspondence from a claims adjuster for the workers' compensation insurance company.  Usually, along with that correspondence will be a medical release that they request you sign.  They will tell you that you have to sign it so they can investigate your claim.  Medical releases that come from the insurance company are very sweeping.  They allow the claims adjuster to obtain any of your medical records literally dating back to the date of your birth.  More importantly it allows the claims adjuster or representatives of your employer to talk to your doctors without you knowing it.   There is no requirement for you to sign...

https://raleighworkerscompensation.com/ DO NOT SPEAK WITH COMPANY INSURANCE REP PRIOR TO A COMP LAWYER: Here's a real world tip for injured workers.  The truth is stranger than fiction. To illustrate the requirement for an injury by accident , I want to use an actual situation.  I was contacted by a firefighter.  At the end of his shift, he realized he had left some gear on the top of the rear of the fire truck. He went up the ladder at the rear of the truck.  Came down the ladder which ends about 30 inches off the ground.  He jumps down, and immediately feels pain in his left knee.  He files the accident report.  About a day later, he gets interviewed by the claims adjuster.  She asks him, "How many times have you gone up and down that ladder?" (Probably thousands of times).  "What kind of surface was it that you landed on?" (Smooth concrete it was in the engine bay.)  "Were there any rocks or sand or sticks there?" (No)  "D...