Cheltenham Workers’ Comp Lawyer
Workers’ Compensation claims are often terribly confusing and complex. Insurance claims should be easy, but employers and insurance carriers have a clear motive to deny as many claims as they can and avoid having to pay their workers after a serious injury, making cases more complex.
Our lawyers can step up to present your case before a judge who has the authority to override the insurance carrier’s decisions and order payment for the benefits you need. Our lawyers can also help negotiate your case and potentially arrive at a settlement. Either way, having an attorney protect your rights is often the difference between getting the benefits you deserve and struggling all on your own while dealing with a disability that keeps you from working.
Call our Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Specialists at Cardamone Law by dialing (267) 651-7945 as soon as you can.
How a Lawyer Can Help with Workers’ Compensation Claims in Cheltenham
Many injured workers do not know the difference between disability insurance, Workers’ Comp, and other plans and benefits their employer might provide. They also might not know how to file a claim in the first place, let alone what to do when their claim is denied. Insurance carriers count on this system being confusing, potentially turning away injured workers before they even get to file. There are also other issues with this system that stack the deck against you and make it hard to get the benefits you need without a lawyer on your side. Our attorneys can stand up for you and help you in a few major ways throughout your case.
What is Workers’ Comp?
First, it is important to understand what Workers’ Comp does, as opposed to some other programs and systems. Often, when someone is injured, they file a lawsuit against the person who caused their injury. At work, the accident might have been your fault, or it might have been caused by a safety issue that is tough to pin on an employer. Workers’ Comp allows you to get benefits from your employer – through their insurance carrier – without having to prove fault in the first place.
Benefits payable through some kind of “disability” program are different and separate from this system. Instead, Workers’ Comp often provides the primary benefits injured workers need: compensation for medical expenses and compensation for lost earnings and earning capacity.
Filing
Filing is also confusing. One might expect that Workers’ Comp is an insurance policy that functions like any other, but that is far from the reality.
Usually, your employer files the initial claim after you notify them of your injury. The insurance carrier is likely to reject this claim flat out, or else offer you benefits that are only partial in nature or deny that your injury fully prevents you from working. In order to get this overturned, we often have to go to court.
In court, we can file a petition to get you the benefits you need. We can also fight the insurance carrier’s case and seek to have the judge order benefits paid or else negotiate with the other side to reach an agreement for benefits.
Backing Your Case
Once in court, there are depositions that need to be taken, medical examinations needed to convince the court your injury is serious, and other expenses to gather and provide the evidence your case needs. It is often difficult for someone – especially someone dealing with a disabling injury – to go about collecting all of this information and paying for these things on their own. Our attorneys are leveraged to provide these up-front costs, as they can often be paid out of the winnings in your claim at the end. This gives you the ability to go toe-to-toe with insurance carriers and bring a case you might otherwise be unable to bring on your own.
Making Sure Settlements Are Fair
Our lawyers can also help you when it comes to potential settlements. When a Workers’ Comp claim is settled, it ends the case. You cannot go back and claim additional money later, so the initial settlement has to be enough to cover your medical costs, your lost earnings, and other benefits you might be entitled to. Our lawyers can help you evaluate the total cost of your case and help you avoid accepting settlements that are too low. We can also help you avoid settlements in cases where it might be better to have the option of going back and getting additional medical care later for conditions that might worsen over time, which is incredibly common with joint injuries, back injuries, and cancer.
Guidance on Medical Exams
There are stages throughout a typical Workers’ Compensation claim where independent medical examinations (IMEs) and impairment rating evaluations (IREs) are required. In both of these cases, an “independent” doctor reviews your medical condition and current state for various determinations, depending on whether you are in an IME or an IRE. Preparing for these evaluations is important, as the doctor is usually paid for by the insurance carrier and is anything but “independent.” Knowing what to expect and making sure that the insurance carrier properly pays these costs is important, as is getting additional medical evidence from doctors of our choice, which we can use to counter any negative results from these exams.
Case Management
If you are out of work for a serious injury, it is unfair to expect you to suddenly be able to act as your own lawyer and manage the timing, depositions, and evidence gathering required for a case against big insurance carriers or employers. Our lawyers handle all of this for you so that you can focus on your recovery, physical therapy, and other medical care and, ultimately, work on getting back to your normal life.
Call Our Workers’ Comp Lawyers in Cheltenham, PA Today
For a free review of your work injury case, reach out to our Workers’ Comp attorneys at Cardamone Law by calling (267) 651-7945.