While an injury is possible in any type of job, there’s no denying that some jobs have higher risks of injury than others. For those working in a high risk job, it is important to know your workers’ compensation rights and understand that every employee is entitled to workers’ compensation if injured on the job, no matter the risk.

After you are wronged or badly injured, your health, your money, and your future may all be at stake. You try to do all you can to recover from a bad situation that is not your fault. You fight your fear and call us for help. Then your lawsuit is finally filed and you can begin to think that this important situation might someday come to an end.

At any given time, one-in-five American adults suffers with a mental health condition that may impacts their daily life. Mental health conditions remain the most expensive health challenge in the nation along with cancer and heart disease. Mental health is the leading cause of disabilities in high-income countries. In the workers’ comp system, mental health conditions have a significant impact on claim and claim duration. 

If you’ve been injured while at work, filing a work injury claim can help get your medical expenses covered through workers’ compensation. There are 5 key steps involved, so knowing exactly what you need to do will help make this process much easier.

Work injuries are not just the result of one-time accidents. Worker’s compensation coverage also covers medical conditions which are related to the job. The American Journal of Epidemiology reports on a study which found that workers in occupations which involved predominantly standing were approximately twice as likely to develop heart disease as workers whose occupations involved predominantly sitting. 

With the nation recently battered by two huge hurricanes, it’s important to know where you stand at work should you be caught in a storm and how workers’ compensation rates can be impacted by such events.  

In the U.S., there is no such thing as disaster leave. This means that if a disaster is imminent, you can be fired for failing to show up for work. However, you may have a case for working in unsafe conditions during a disaster if you work a non-union private sector job. 

You have been injured at work. You have filed a claim with the North Carolina Industrial Commission. Either your case is accepted and you receive benefits, or it is denied and you don’t. Some big issue – like the denial of medical treatment, or the insurance company trying to cut off your benefits — may have caused you to file for a hearing. But in a North Carolina workers’ compensation case, hardly anything happens quickly. What’s the best thing to do when you just have to wait until your case is done?

Congratulations! You’ve won the award. Now what? Your client who receives means-tested government benefits – Medicaid and SSI – may lose eligibility due to the injury award. Perhaps, due to the nature of the injury, the client may need professional assistance to manage their funds even in the absence of public benefits. And, your client may also have future Medicare expenses stemming from the injury. How can you protect current and future benefit eligibility, help your client manage the funds, and plan for future Medicare expenses? The coordinated use of a Medicare Set-Aside Account (MSA) within a Pooled Special Needs Trust (PSNT) can help solve these problems.

In April as part of the horse trade known as the New York State Budget, injured workers’ benefits were used as bargaining chips. The Business Counsel had argued that schedule loss of use awards which are given to workers’ for permanent injuries to the extremities were suddenly unfair to the employer. The original guidelines they argue were outdated and did not take into consideration new advances in medicine. One of the Budget provisions directed the Board to “consult” with a group stacked with pro-business and insurance interests to re-evaluate the current guidelines. Recently rather than addressing how advances in modern medicine enhance healing or create better outcomes, the Board totally disregarded the legislation’s directive and instead simply rewrote the entirety of the guidelines to create a new evaluation process which would destroy previously awarded benefits for permanent injuries.

Federal laws require companies to protect employees who work with dangerous machinery. Two recent finger-amputation incidents at a Primex Plastics Corporation plant in Georgia are a stark reminder that there can be severe consequences for employers and employees when safety efforts fall short