Stop The Bleed – Our Lawyers Resolve Claims
Effective Teamwork
From the employer’s perspective, workers’ compensation involves more than just providing medical treatment or writing a check for benefits. It involves effective claims handling to return injured workers to gainful employment, identifying problem cases and taking appropriate action to resolve them, and finally, litigating those cases that cannot otherwise be resolved. Case law, statutes and legislation regarding workplace injuries and diseases change frequently, and staying on top of these changes is not simple. The application of these changes and the monitoring of the environment in which they will be applied also requires commitment. Effective claim handling often necessitates involvement from an attorney who specializes in workers’ compensation from day one of the claim until its conclusion.
Our workers’ compensation defense attorneys are frequently consulted regarding issues of initial compensability, including whether an employer/employee relationship exists or whether the alleged incident is compensable. Once these threshold questions are resolved, it often becomes necessary to determine the type of benefits to which an injured worker is entitled, such as total disability, partial disability, permanent impairment, disfigurement and medical treatment. One of the most frequent issues we are called upon to assist our clients with is an injured worker’s ability to return to work after disability has been accepted. The analysis of “make work” and the “presumption of disability” can be a potential mindfield. We work closely with our clients to assure informed decision-making leading to an agreed upon strategy and positive results.
An Ever Changing Medical Landscape
Today’s workers’ compensation cases involve much more than the traditional traumatic injury claim. While trauma cases still comprise the majority of workers’ compensation claims, occupational disease claims of all types, including repetitive stress and trauma, as well as emotional stress, are becoming increasingly common. Whether medical treatment is reasonable and necessary for these new, and often more complicated, claims is often a difficult decision. Our workers’ compensation attorneys with their varied backgrounds, education and experience, are uniquely qualified to handle these claims.
An Ongoing Specialized Education
Workers’ compensation is one of the most frequently changing fields of law. An informed defense requires almost constant education. We provide in-house seminars for our clients and their insureds. We also publish a monthly newsletter to assist our clients in keeping current with regard to the constant changes in the law or the handling of the claims.
An Array of Clients
Our clients range from heavy manufacturers, including the steel and aluminum industry, to health care providers, cities, counties, governmental agencies and a wide variety of businesses, both large and small. The majority of our clients are self-insured, thereby necessitating a more personal and involved defense. Our clients rely on our availability, whether it be for current claims or future issues. We know that keeping the employer current and well informed is a part of our responsibility.
A Proactive Partnership with our Clients
We view our professional relationship with each client as a partnership. We believe that it is our obligation to provide excellent service in every aspect of our partnership with our client. We achieve this level of service by:
- Keeping current with regard to workers’ compensation laws, statutes and legislation.
- Being thorough and aggressive in representing our clients.
- Being decisive and responsive to our client’s needs and requests.
- Giving our client full opportunity to determine not only the direction the legal representation should take, but also the effort and expense to be extended.
- Being prepared to mediate or try the case.
- Providing effective representation at a reasonable cost.
- Keeping the client current and well informed at each step.
The attorneys in our firm know that adherence to certain standards enhances our ability to produce favorable results for our clients. We believe in thorough homework and investigation. We carefully map our strategy in discussions and correspondence to our client. We believe that every document we write and every exhibit we prepare should be clear and meaningful and thoroughly reviewed before it becomes part of the record in a case. The legal opinions we generate are based on experience and a complete understanding of the relevant statutes and case law. When you retain our firm to represent you in any workers’ compensation claim, we apply all the skills and resources we have to successfully resolve it.
We know that the manner in which our firm responds to our clients’ needs may also affect the outcome of a claim and our ongoing partnership with our client. To this end we pride ourselves in our service; and
- When you make inquiries, we endeavor to give you a clear, concise and prompt response.
- When you call one of our attorneys, he or she will either take the call immediately or return it promptly.
- When you request information, we get it to you as quickly as we can – no delays and no excuses.
Though the firm is highly experienced and possesses strong trial capabilities, we recognize that, as a defense firm, it is our obligation to help clients avoid litigation in the first instance. The firm engages in extensive risk management efforts to help clients achieve this goal. If litigation is unavoidable, our homework and preparation, provides the client with a true choice of either compromise or hearing.