All too often, I've seen honest, hard-working workers injured in Maryland work accidents & diseases taken advantage of by their employer's uncaring workers' compensation insurance company. The harsh reality is that powerful insurance companies are in business to make money and the less they pay you the more profit they make.
Workers' compensation insurers use many excuses to deny your right to any workers compensation benefits:
- They don't believe you were hurt at work
- They don't believe you were hurt at all
- You were hurt when on a frolic of your own, not part of your work
- You were hurt when engaged in horseplay, when you were drinking, or under the influence of drugs
- Your employment had nothing to do with your occupational disease
If they accept your claim, they will use many excuses to deny your claims for medical benefits:
- Your injuries are not as bad as you say
- You didn't hurt all the areas of your body that you say you did
- You had that injury or condition before your work accident, its not from and wasn't made worse by the work accident
- The injury you want treatment for is not from the work accident, its from something else
- The treatment you want is not medically necessary
- Our doctor says your injury is not real, and if it is, you don't need the treatment that your doctor wants to do
If they accept your claim, they will use many excuses to refuse to pay you income replacement benefits while you heal and cannot work:
- You are not hurt as bad as you say and can do all of your regular work duties
- We don't agree with your doctor that you cannot work. Our doctor says you can
- You refused to accept our offer to accomodate your 'light duty' restrictions at our other location, even though its hours away
If you request vocational rehabilitation, they will use various excuses to deny these benefits:
- You are not eligible for vocational rehabilitation because your injuries are not bad enough to prevent you from returning to the job you did when you were hurt
- You are too old and we don't want to pay to re-train you
- You can go back to your employer and do a different job that suits you just fine
- We don't think you are really serious about returning to work
When the time comes for the assessment of your permanent injuries and what amount of money you should get because of what's happened, after the insurance company has you seen by "their" doctor, you will hear these excuses to lessen your award:
- You have fully healed and have no permanent injuries
- If you have any permanent injury, it is of a limited amount
- A large part of your permanent injury was there before the work accident, and we are not responsible for that
- A large part of your permanent injury came from something after the work accident, and we are not responsible for that
- You shouldn't get very much because you can still do the same job and earn the same money you did before you were hurt
These are the challenges you may face and that I've dealt with on a daily basis for the more than 35 years I've helped injured workers.
Whatever the reason given, its my job to gather and examine your medical records, talk with your doctors, interview witnesses, get necessary expert witnesses, and collect all the evidence necessary to establish and secure the acceptance of your Maryland work accident & disease claim and get you the workers' compensation benefits you deserve.
