Northeast Philadelphia Workplace Injury & Workers’ Comp Lawyer

Michael Cardamone and the rest of the attorneys at our firm represent injured workers in Northeast Philadelphia and all over Eastern and Central Pennsylvania. Michael is quite familiar with the courtroom rules and standards for Workers’ Compensation Judges who hear cases in Northeast Philadelphia after years of litigating cases before them to great success. We have also settled numerous cases for Northeast Philadelphia residents and are prepared to handle your case as well if you or a loved one was injured at work.

Our firm has strong connections to the Northeast, with a network of doctors that service patients in Northeast Philadelphia. Our lead attorney even attended St. Joe’s Prep (Class of ‘92), where he made many friends who reside in and work in the Northeast.

For a free review of your case, call Cardamone Law and our Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Specialists at (267) 651-7945.

How a Workers’ Comp Lawyer Can Help with Your Case in The Northeast

If you were hurt at work, chances are you are not a Workers’ Comp lawyer. This puts you at an immediate disadvantage when it comes to knowing your rights, understanding your benefits, negotiating with your employer and their insurance carrier, and knowing when they are trying to pull a fast one on you. Our Workers’ Comp lawyers can help equalize this situation and remove these inequalities.

First and foremost, our attorneys have special certifications that not every lawyer has. This shows that we have a proven record with Workers’ Comp cases and have the knowledge it takes to represent our clients in their work injury claims. Even other lawyers who work injury claims do not have this level of expertise, putting us a step above many in this field on both sides.

Second, our attorneys are intimately familiar with your rights and can seek to protect them by helping you file your claim, fighting denials, calculating your benefits for you, and advising you every step of the way as to what you are owed and what you should not settle for.

Third, our lawyers can negotiate with your employer or the insurance carrier that represents them, fighting any denials directly. We can also help you calculate your benefits so that you know what they should be worth, helping you to say no to any settlements that are undervalued or missing certain benefits.

Lastly, our lawyers can file petitions with Workers’ Compensation Judges to get denials overturned by force, to push your employer to respond to your claims, and to make insurance companies pay what they owe.

How Does Workers’ Compensation Work in Northeast Philly?

When a worker gets injured at work, the Workers’ Compensation Act says that their employer is supposed to pay them. This skips the need for a lawsuit and does away with any requirements that you would have to prove the employer was at fault. In fact, Workers’ Comp is a no-fault system, and benefits should be paid out even if you caused the accident yourself – as long as you did not do so intentionally, while drunk, while under the influence of drugs, or while committing a crime.

Workers’ Comp works on the basis that your employer is in the best financial place to take care of you if you get hurt while performing a job for them. Your employer usually fulfills this obligation by subscribing to Workers’ Comp insurance, and their insurance carrier actually pays your medical bills and wage-loss benefits when you get hurt.

This brings us to these two important areas of benefits: medical benefits and wage-loss benefits. Medical benefits are paid to cover any and all medical care necessary to treat your injuries. This takes all out-of-pocket costs away from you and puts them on your employer as a matter of law. Additionally, your employer pays “indemnity” or wage-loss benefits, usually covering around 2/3 of your lost wages. If you have a partial disability, you should receive 2/3 of the difference between your preinjury and postinjury wages.

At the end of the day, this system rarely works as intended, and insurance companies and employers often do what they can to deny benefits, skip out on payments, and scrutinize you every step of the way in an attempt to shut you out of benefits. Our lawyers stand between them and you, fighting to keep these benefits coming or to settle the case in a lump-sum payment so they cannot touch your benefits ever again.

Reasons Workers’ Comp Claims Get Denied in Northeast Philadelphia

When you notify your employer of your injury – which must be done within 120 days of the injury – they might not accept your claim. Insurance carriers and employers will often deny your claim and make you fight for benefits, often basing their denial on one of the following reasons:

No Notice

As mentioned, you have 120 days to give your employer notice of your injury or else they can deny you. Our lawyers can help you file your notice on time and in the proper form to close any gaps in your case that might allow the employer to deny your case based on insufficient notice. If they claim they lost your notice, we can come with the copies and receipts needed to prove them wrong.

Injury Not Work-Related

For your employer to cover your injury, it has to be work-related. This means that the accident that caused your injuries happened in the course of your work. If your injury was related to your job duties, it should be covered even if it was a rare injury or resulted from a “freak accident.”

Workers’ Comp also covers certain illnesses, but the rules might be a bit more complex. In some cases, you need to show that there is a higher incidence of that particular illness in your job than in the population at large to get it covered, and you always need to link the illness back to specific work conditions, e.g., chemical exposure.

Victim’s Actions

Since Workers’ Comp is a no-fault system, it should cover accidents even if you caused them. However, it does not cover accidents that you caused intentionally or because of your own intoxication, drug use, or criminal activity. Your employer will often try to pin the injury on you or accuse you of fraud, but good documentation, coworker testimony, and other evidence can fight these allegations and get you the benefits you already deserve.

Injury Not Severe Enough

Insurance carriers often accept that they have to pay for your medical care, but they refuse to pay for your ongoing lost wages. This can happen on the grounds that they refuse to believe you have lost the ability to keep working or by saying that you are not injured “enough” to be “totally” disabled. The threshold between “partial” and “total” disability is that you have a total “impairment rating” of at least 35%. If you perform some work after being injured or show improvement, they will likely try to shut down or reduce your benefits.

Call Our Workers’ Compensation Attorneys in Northeast Philly Today

Call (267) 651-7945 for a free case assessment with the Workers’ Comp attorneys at Cardamone Law today.