Once you are injured on the job, you can expect to reap some great benefits from your employer's workers' comp plan. Medical bills? No problem. Stay home and recuperate? Go right ahead. In many cases, your time using these benefits is confined to a few weeks or so, and then you are back on the job and healthy. Unfortunately, not all injuries heal so well, and in some cases they never heal at all. When that happens, you may be looking at a permanent injury. Read on to learn about how careful you should be when it comes to agreeing to a workers' comp settlement.
When you don't get better: The workers' comp carrier will monitor your healing progress very carefully to ensure that you are getting better. At some point, they may decide that you should be ready to return to work, based on other workers and how their injuries affected them. When that happens, you may be asked to participate in a particular type of medical exam, known as the independent medical exam. This exam is meant to evaluate your injury and determine when, if ever, you will be well enough to return to your job. In most cases, you will either be asked to return to work or deemed permanently injured.
When you have a permanent injury: A permanent injury usually mean several things: that you are never going to be able to work at your job again and that your level of benefits is about to change. The change usually involves a switch from receiving a weekly monetary payment that consists of a portion of your pay, to a lump sum settlement.
Settling quickly: In some cases, you may find yourself presented with the settlement offer surprisingly early on in the process. Increasingly, workers' comp carriers are offering hurt employees an opportunity to get a cash settlement in return for a stoppage of benefits and an agreement to not seek further compensation. If you are offered a quick settlement, you should use extreme caution and seek the help of a workers' compensation attorney.
Why not settle right away? The workers' comp carrier, even though they have provided you with some valuable benefits up to now, are losing money for everyday that you are out of work and collecting benefits. It's more financially healthy for the insurance companies to cut their losses and offer a sum of money to a worker, even when you have not had the opportunity to fully heal from your injury. If you accept this lump sum amount, you could regret it later on. Be sure to allow an attorney to help you carefully evaluate any offers to get the maximum you are entitled to get before you sign on that dotted line.
Share24 July 2017
My name is Noni. When I was in college, I was hit by a car while crossing the street. My life was never in danger, but I did break a few bones and had a lot of huge medical bills. I was hoping I wouldn't have to get involved with an attorney, but unfortunately, it came down to that. I used a family friend who is an accident attorney to get some compensation. A few years later, I was hit while riding my bike and had to go through the same process. I suppose I'm lucky to be alive. And it's thanks to accident attorneys that I have been able to put my life back together. I started this blog as a way to let others know just how much lawyers can help you in certain situations.