What To Do If Workers Comp Case Is Disputed?
The topic is: What do I do if my workers comp case is completely disputed?
I just had this situation with a client. She was involved in a motor vehicle accident while she was on the clock. This is one of those cases where if you're a delivery driver or you're injured while you're on the clock but some other person other than your employer, some other person or businesses injure you, you can do a workers comp and a third party case. In this case, we could do workers comp and we could do a car accident case both.
In this situation, for whatever reason, workers comp completely denied the case and wanted to fight about it. I still don't know why. They always have a reason, but there's a difference between a reason and an excuse. Usually when an insurance company denies a worker's comp case, the stuff that I hear coming out of their mouth sounds more like an excuse than it does a good reason and this case is no exception. We're in a weird situation where workers comp flat out refuse to pay any benefits but the car accident insurance was making a good offer on the case.
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Workers Comp Case With Personal Injury Case
In workers comp they're supposed to pay your bills, pay you while you're off work, and pay you a lump sum of money at the end of the case and that's the advantage workers comp. You can have some income coming in and you can have your medical bills paid as you incur them.
Versus in a car accident case, wherein everything gets paid at the end of one settlement. It takes a lot of heat off you if you've got money coming in and you're off work with a doctor's note in a worker's comp case. It's a cool thing when you have both. The downside is you got to pay workers comp back. In this situation, we're not going to have to pay workers comp back anything. Because they literally paid nothing and it is a completely disputed case.
Workers Comp Company Did Not Pay Anything
I ran the numbers and called the client up and explained everything and she is very happy with the numbers. And now she doesn't care whether she gets anything in the workers comp case because the amount of money I'm going to be able to put in her pocket in the third party case is such that she doesn't care if she recovers in workers comp and now we don't have to pay anything out from the workers comp company. In other words there's no lien because they didn't pay anything and they're refusing to pay anything.
That's called turning lemons into lemonade. I'm very happy about it, the client's very happy about it, and it looks like we're going to be able to get that one done for the lady.
It Does Not Mean It Is The End
Just because your workers comp case is disputed doesn't mean you don't have a lot of options. The first most obvious options are go to court and force them to pay benefits. But if there are problems with the case otherwise there's other ways a smart attorney can finagle your case and get your benefits. But it's got to be somebody who's experienced, who's motivated to actually look at your case.
These are all strategies that a good injury lawyer knows to get you paid even if the case is totally denied. Totally disputed workers comp case does not mean it's the end of the road, does not mean you don't have other options. I was super happy to be able to help this lady. She's a very nice lady. If you or a loved one needs help please give me a call anytime night or day.
