Levittown, PA Workers’ Compensation Lawyer

Workers’ Compensation is a system designed to get injured workers the compensation they need for on-the-job injuries, including compensation for medical care, lost wages, and permanent injuries, facial scarring, or lost hearing and vision.

To get these benefits, you file with your employer and their insurance carrier, but if they reject your claim, our attorneys can take the case before a Workers’ Comp Judge.  These are special administrative judges who exclusively hear Workers’ Comp cases.

Reach out to our Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers at Cardamone Law by calling (267) 651-7945 for a free case assessment today.

How Our Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialists Can Help Injured Workers in Levittown

In most of the legal profession, lawyers cannot advertise themselves as specialists.  However, some of our attorneys have special certifications indicating that we are Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Specialists.  To get this title, we had to participate in certain types of cases, hearings, and filings, plus pass specialized exams to gain the ability to hold ourselves out as specialists.

What this means for you is that Workers’ Comp is all we do.  If you get hurt at work, our lawyers have more training and experience in Workers’ Compensation cases than many other attorneys and even many of the attorneys and representatives for insurance carriers.  Our Workers’ Comp lawyers can put that experience to work for you, helping you with all stages of your application, hearings, and appeals.

When you get hurt at work, contact us immediately to understand your next steps, how to apply for coverage, what information and proof you need to get your case accepted, and help appealing to a Workers’ Comp Judge (WCJ) if your employer turns down your Workers’ Comp application.

Workers’ Comp Claims and Appeals Process in Levittown, PA

Understanding the basic process of applying and appeals can help make the process of applying for Workers’ Compensation a lot less intimidating:

Initial Claim

You start your case by notifying your employer of the injury, and then they file with their insurance carrier to get you benefits for medical bills, 2/3 of your lost earnings, and benefits for “specific loss.”  If the employer or insurance carrier does not want to pay, they can refuse coverage on the grounds that you are not an employee (e.g., if they think you are actually an independent contractor), that your injuries did not occur within the scope of your work, or that your injuries are not actually disabling.  However, many employers will also rely on false grounds or they will unreasonably deny or even ignore your claim, allowing the deadline for a response to lapse.

Employer’s Response

If the employer responds like they are supposed to, they will take one of four options.

First, they can accept the claim and begin paying you ongoing benefits.  This is rare.  Alternatively, their second option is to offer you a settlement for your benefits so that they pay you in a lump sum instead of as ongoing benefits.  Our lawyers can help you understand whether this settlement is enough and negotiate for a better settlement if necessary.

Third, they can deny your claim and say they will not pay.  This is much more likely.  Lastly, the employer can agree to pay on a temporary basis to give them more time to investigate your claim, at which point they can deny the claim without being seen as going back on their promise to pay.

If you have ongoing benefits, we have no need to appeal; and if you will be signing a settlement agreement, we usually need to schedule a hearing before a WCJ to take care of that.

WCJ Hearings

If your claim was denied, we can take the case before a WCJ with a Claim Petition to have the judge decide whether you get benefits.  If the employer had denied your case without reasonable grounds, we may be able to seek attorney’s fees as well.  If they ignore the claim or otherwise acted with bad intent, we can potentially even request other penalties with a Penalty Petition.

From there, we will gather evidence and depositions for the hearing, the costs of which can often be reimbursed when we win your case.

Appeals

If the WCJ denies your claim, we can appeal it to the Workers’ Comp Appeals Board.  If they deny your claim, too, then we can appeal it to the Commonwealth Court and, after that, potentially even to the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Returning to Court

At other stages in your case, your claim might go back to a hearing to determine other aspects of the case, such as whether your disability status has changed from total to partial, whether certain medical care should be covered, and whether any payments were made in the wrong amounts.  If your case is settled, it usually cannot go back to court to change your status later; the case is settled and done.

Workers’ Comp Benefits for Injured Workers in Levittown

Workers’ Compensation typically pays three areas of benefits to injured workers.  If your loved one passed away because of a work injury, then surviving family members can alternatively claim death benefits to cover a portion of the lost wages they would have claimed, medical expenses, and death benefits for burial and funeral costs maxing out at $7,000 paid directly to the undertaker.

Wage-Loss Benefits

If your injury causes you to miss work for more than 7 days, you can get wage-loss benefits.  These also pay for partial disabilities that reduce your earning capacity.  For total disability, payments equal 2/3 of your average wage before the accident, subject to caps.  For partial disability, you get 2/3 of the difference in wages from before and after the injury.

Medical Benefits

All medical care to treat the work injury, including ongoing therapy, mental health therapy, and medication, should be covered as part of your claim, whether the injury is disabling or not.

Specific Loss

Benefits for “specific loss” can pay a certain number of weeks’ worth of benefits for injuries, according to the listings in the Workers’ Comp Act.  These pay for amputations, permanent losses, lost function, lost sight, lost hearing, and serious facial scars.

Call Our Levittown Workers’ Comp Lawyer Immediately

If you need help, do not hesitate to call (267) 651-7945 for a free case assessment with our Workers’ Comp attorneys at Cardamone Law.