Paying Your Workers Comp Benefits And What They Owe You
I'm going to tell you something that's very common. People tell me this all the time and they usually say this after they've waited a really long time to even call a lawyer to talk about their injury situation. Whether it be workers comp, car crash, slip and fall, premises liability, nursing home abuse, or whatever kind of case they call me about.
I really get it with workers comp, a ton, and so people say
"Oh well I didn't call a lawyer because if the law says I'm supposed to get these benefits, then won't they just pay me the benefits? If the law says they're supposed to do it then they'll just do it 99% of the time and then if the case gets all messed up, I'll call a lawyer"
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Talking To A Lawyer Feels Awkward
I can understand why people feel that way. I can understand not wanting to make a claim against your job, feeling awkward about it, talking to a lawyer. A lot of lawyers are pushy, they want you to sign on the dotted line without them really explaining or answering your questions. Then you're put in that situation at the same time that you're hurt at work, maybe you're not working, maybe you don't have money coming in, maybe the company hooked you up with a doctor who seems like he's a nice guy right now.
I get why people do that and think that way but I'm gonna tell you something. You can never forget that businesses are businesses. Even if your company is nice, as soon as you get hurt at work, your company calls a workers comp insurance company, and they're required by law to have workers comp insurance. As soon as your employer, your job calls workers comp insurance, who do you think controls everything about that claim?
Insurance Adjuster
It is the workers comp insurance, it's not your boss. Your boss can call the insurance company and say "hey benefits we don't want to fight". The problem is, the workers comp insurance controls every part of the client. So the first thing that they do is, they assign insurance adjuster and a lot of these insurance companies, the insurance adjuster gets bonuses for keeping costs down. The higher the percentage of claims they can successfully deny, the lower per case payout that they can arrange, they get bonuses they, get promotions.
Remember the workers comp people have never met you, they've never worked with you, they don't know you, so your employer could be awesome. A lot of times they're not. I could tell you some stories about that. I think I've done some articles on that already.
Know The Strength And Weaknesses Of Your Case
At the end of the day, the truth is, nobody's gonna just pay for your benefits. And even if they start paying your benefits, halfway through the case once the amount they've spent on your workers comp claim hits a certain number, a supervisor at the workers comp insurance company will look at the expenditures and then say,
"No way! we got to cut this guy off, call the company treating doctor and tell them to cut off the benefits, stop paying them TTD and tell him he has to go back to work."
That's the way these things go, so don't be afraid to talk to a lawyer. With free consultation, you don't have to hire a lawyer. You need to know the strength of your case and the weaknesses of your case so that you can protect yourself and your family.
Do Not Hesitate To Call A Lawyer
I think you got about even chances may be a little bit less than even odds of having an employer who's cool with you. But I can promise you, you virtually never get a workers comp insurance company to be cool with you.I understand a lot of people don't want to rock the boat, and keep it cool. I understand that, but as soon as a worker's comp insurance company gets involved in your work injury case, you're in real trouble. That's what I tell people. Do not hesitate to call a lawyer.
Pick The Right Injury Lawyer
The last thing I'll say about that is, if you have a lawyer who's adding to your stress, maybe you're not talking to the right lawyer. It used to be like there were a lot of injured people but only a few lawyers. So the lawyers could be jerks and the injured people had to chase and hunt down and find an injury lawyer. It's not that way.
Downtown Chicago, you can't throw a rock without hitting three lawyers. Now you got the same amount of injured people maybe even less because a lot of industry left Illinois. But now you have got many lawyers and unfortunately a lot of lawyers still have that mentality of
"They're lucky if I represent them, I'm the boss and I've got to show the client who's the boss and they're not going to ask me questions".
Well that's the wrong attitude to have a hundred years ago. It's not being cool, it's not being a decent moral human being treats other people with respect, but it's definitely dumb these days.
Where Can I Find The Right Lawyer For Me?
That's why I always tell people if you are going to talk to a lawyer and you get one on the phone who acts like he's a big-shot, doesn't want to answer your questions, hang up the phone and call somebody else. It's easy to find a lawyer, you can do it on the internet, there's advertising everywhere or you might have to find a lawyer from somewhere else, like you can get a lawyer from anywhere. I don't know where you might find...oh yeah that's me. You can call me, I'd be happy to talk to you whether you have a case or not, or email me or whatever, you can look at the links below how to reach me.
