When it comes to filing and obtaining workers compensation benefits, the laws in many states make it difficult to file for worker’s comp. So, if you’ve been injured, you should know going in automatically that the pendulum is not swinging in your favor. Most likely it will side with your employer.
Many states are very business-friendly, that means that the laws often side with the business and not the employee. If you get injured, you have a lot of work ahead of you to win your case. You’ll need to hire a great attorney who knows the laws and can represent you in a way that gives you the advantage over the employer.
Here are three reasons why you should hire a workman’s comp attorney:
Reason #1: You Don’t Pick the Doctor, the Insurance Company Does
One way in which your employer has the upper hand is that the insurance company connected to the employer’s workers comp insurance is the one who chooses the doctor that you see, not you. You can have a doctor telling you A, but if their doctor disagrees, then you’re out of luck. Your diagnosis is important to the process as it will determine if you qualify and how much you should get on the law.
The doctors in most cases side with the employer. Their only goal is to get you back to work so that the employer doesn’t have to pay for benefits. They’ve been known to cover up underlying issues for the sole purpose of dampening your diagnosis in getting you back to work much quicker. When the entire process is skewed in their favor from the beginning, that’s a reason to hire a lawyer to take care of it for you.
Reason #2: They Make It Tougher on Attorneys
Imagine being in employer-friendly state. You want to pass laws that do everything possible to give businesses the upper hand. Not only do they get to choose the doctor, new laws have made it even more difficult for worker’s comp lawyers to get paid for representing clients. It’s done so that they are not paid from the clients themselves but through the same insurance company who chooses the doctors.
Because some of these cases take many months to wrap up, attorneys aren’t getting paid until months after the whole investigation started. This is making it more difficult to find a lawyer who will take on a workman’s comp. case.
Reason #3: Your Eligibility is Limited
As was stated earlier, the system doesn’t care about you at all. When he cares about is getting you back to work right away. When the doctor makes the decision to send you back to work, that’s it. You go back to work. It doesn’t matter if you’re still injured. Once the doctor decides, the money stops. And if you want to keep your job, you are forced to return.
Even if you make through these three steps, there’s no guarantee that your job will be ready and waiting for you once you get back. States offer no guarantees or protection to the injured worker that they will be able to get back to work, so even bringing you back is at the employer’s discretion.
For these reasons, you need a workman’s comp attorney on your side to help guide you through the system and overcome the unfair laws that care little for the worker. If you find yourself in this type of situation, going at it alone is the worst thing you can do. The system is not designed for you to win, but to protect businesses.
