A Legal Advocate for Injured Workers
Have you been injured in an accident at work? Are you worried about not getting the medical treatment and/or lump sum settlement you deserve?
Attorney John Christiansen has helped many workers pursue fair compensation. Based in Jackson County, Missouri, he handles cases in both Missouri and Kansas. If you were hired in one state and injured in the other (as is often the case in the Kansas City area), he can counsel you on which state's legal system may be more advantageous for your case.
Contact John to schedule a free initial consultation about your workers' compensation options. His fees will be limited to a reasonable percentage of your recovery. John can also evaluate your work injury circumstances to determine whether you have a personal injury claim.
Pursuing Adequate Medical Care and Recovery Time
The workers' compensation system (sometimes referred to as workman's comp or work comp) provides benefits to employees who have been injured on the job no matter who was at fault for the accident that caused the injury.
The most well-known element of workers' compensation is an employee's right to medical treatment and temporary total disability (TTD) payments while he or she remains medically unable to return to work.
If you have been injured at work, you should obtain appropriate medical treatment through doctors chosen by your employer, and you should begin receiving TTD, which is generally two-thirds of your normal weekly wage.
If your employer is not providing adequate medical treatment or you are being asked to return to work before you have fully recovered, you have a right to a hearing at the Missouri or Kansas Division of Workers' Compensation and to be represented by an attorney.
Seeking Compensation for Permanent Effects of Injuries
Once you are able to return to work, you may be entitled to a lump sum payment to compensate you for any permanent partial disability or impairment caused by your injury, and you may also be entitled to future medical treatment.
Your injury may very well be with you for the rest of your life, and you deserve the opportunity to get fair compensation. These payments are covered by complex legal standards, so you should consult an experienced workers' compensation lawyer to determine whether you are being offered an appropriate amount.
Missouri Workers' Compensation Law: Some of the Basics:
A workers' compensation injury is an accidental injury or occupational disease sustained by an employee that arises out of and in the course and scope of the employee's employment, where the employer and employee were subject to the Missouri Workers' Compensation Law.
Basic Benefits:
Medical Treatment: The claimant (injured worker) is entitled to reasonable and necessary medical treatment to cure and relieve the effects of the work injury. The employer/insurer controls and directs medical treatment. This can be challenged through a hardship process with the Division of Workers' Compensation.
Temporary Total Disability (TTD): If the treating doctor has the claimant off work or on such restrictions that the employer is unable to accomodate the restrictions, the claimant is entitled to receive 2/3 of their gross weekly pay, subject to certain maximum limits provided by the work comp. law.
Permanent Disability - The claimant is entitled to money for permanent disability. If an emplyee can never work again, he/she may be entitled to money for total disability which can result in weekly payments for the rest of their life. If the claimant is still able to work, he/she is entitled to money for permanent disability. A hypothetical example of how permanent partial disability is computed would be as follows: A worker sustains a torn rotator cuff injury for which surgery is performed. The parties agree to settle for 17.5% disability of the shoulder (232-week level on the workers' comp. chart). 232 is then multiplied by 17.5% = 40.6 weeks. 40.6 is then multiplied by the person's compensation rate. Assuming this is $350, then the amount for the disability would come to $14,210.
Lesser Benefits and Other Compensable Issues and Claims:
Disfigurement - money can be awarded for scarring on the face, neck, hands or lower arms. 40 weeks paid at compensation rate for permanent disability is the maximum amount allowable. This is assessed by the Judge.
Second Injury Fund claim: Injured workers may be entitled to additional money from the Second Injury Fund. The "Fund" is both a state governmental entity and fund of money available for certain specific circumstances. There are three basic categories for recovery from the Second Injury Fund. These are as follows: 1) the most common is the situation where the injured worker has a disability of 15% of a major extremity or 12.5% for a body as a whole injury for both the primary injury (the one the current workers' comp. case concerns) AND the prior disability. The prior/preexisting disability can be non-work related; the cause does not matter. It can be of either a physical or mental nature. The condition must constitute a "hindrance or obstacle to employment or to reemployment if the employee becomes unemployed. The combined disabilities must be "substantially greater than that which would have resulted from the last injury alone. The above-listed percentages of disability do not apply to cases alleging permanent total disability (meaning a case where the employee can never work again). 2) Uninsured employer situation - this allows for an injured worker to recover medical expenses or burial costs in situations where their employer failed to have workers' compensation insurance, although required to have it under the law. 3) 2nd job wage loss situation - "Any employee who at the time a compensable work-related injury is sustained is employed by more than one employer, the employer for whom the employee was working when the injury was sustained shall be responsible for wage loss benefits applicable only to the earnings in that employer's employment and the injured employee shall be entitled to file a claim against the second injury fund for any additional wage loss benefits attributed to loss of earnings from the employment or employments where the injury did not occur..."
mileage - money for milegae may be available if medical treatment is outside the employee's principle place of employment and residence.
medical/prescription expenses: The employee receiving authorized treatment should never be billed. However, there may be situations where there are unpaid medical bills or prescription expenses for which reimbursement has not been made.
Third Party Personal Injury Claim: Keep in mind that some work accidents, typically car wrecks, fall under workers' compensation law and personal injury law. This means that both a workers' compensation claim and a personal injury claim can be pursued for the same injury. The workers' compensation insurance carrier will have a work comp. lien pursuant to section 287.150 of the Revised Statutes of Missouri for benefits paid.
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Meeting the Statute of Limitations and Providing Notice to the Employer/Insurer:
Be aware that a Claim for Compensation must be filed by the claimant within 2 years of the date of injury, or the last time that authorized workers' compensation benefits were provided/paid, whichever is later in time. This is the responsibility of the injured worker or his/her attorney. The employer will not do this for you. Failure to timely file a claim means the statute of limitations has run and that the claim is forever barred.
Notice of the work injury must be given to the employer in writing as a general rule. This is the responsbility of the injured worker. Pursuant to section 287.420 of the Revised Missouri Statutes, "written notice of the time, place and nature of injury, and the name and address of the person injured" must be given to the employer no later than thirty days after the accident, unless the employer was not prejudiced by failure to receive the notice.
Contact John to discuss what he can do to help you pursue fair work injury compensation.
