We successfully resolved a couple foot injury claims recently, so I thought I’d write a short workers’ compensation foot injury blog. I don’t think there’s much dispute over the fact that on-the-job foot injuries are particularly devastating to working folks. Obviously, if it becomes difficult to simply stand and walk, it’s also very hard to perform a job while not being able to stand or walk very well. Secondly, feet are made up of many, many different bones, joints, tendons, muscles and ligaments; all working together to allow folks to move. When one part of this complex structure is injured and has to be fixed, it is often quite difficult for doctors to patch things back together like they were before. It commonly takes months and months for an injured worker to heal following a foot injury; while they’re receiving a whole bunch of medical care and are usually quite depressed about their situation.
Insurance companies know that foot injuries can be quite expensive to pay for and, as a consequence, they sometimes try to manipulate the medical treatment in order to try to end the claim fast and just leave the injured worker hobbling around for the rest of his or her life. Please do not let this happen in your foot injury claim. With the right assistance, from an experienced and well-respected workers’ compensation team like Hart Law, there is light at the end of the tunnel. We fight hard in these feet claims, and we’re with our clients every painful step of the way, in order to make sure they return to good health and get every benefit that our Workers’ Compensation Law offers in these types of cases.
Have questions about a foot injury claim? Please feel free to give us a call, anytime.
Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
Most of the time, a employee injured at work has only one path to recovery – our Workers’ Compensation Act. Unfortunately, our Exclusive Remedy Doctrine bars injured workers from suing their employers for negligence. If you’re hurt at work, then workers’ comp is what you get. Unless there is a negligent third party involved in the scenario. One of the most common examples of this is when an injured worker is involved in a car or truck wreck while on the job. If the wreck was caused by the negligence of another driver, then the injured employee potentially has a workers’ compensation claim and a personal injury case, both arising out of the same accident. A skilled workers’ compensation lawyer, working alongside a skilled personal injury lawyer like Terry Dugger, Of Counsel to Hart Law, can use the workers’ compensation case to build the personal injury case, and ultimately maximize the value of both.
If you think your workers’ compensation claim may also involve a personal injury case, feel free to give us a call to discuss your options, anytime.
Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
Arkansas Rule Of Professional Conduct 1.4 states that lawyers shall “reasonably consult with the client” and “keep the client reasonably informed” about the status of his or her case. It goes on to require that lawyers “promptly reply to reasonable requests for information” from their clients and to “explain a matter to the extent reasonably necessary to permit the client to make informed decisions regarding the representation.”
In other words, visiting with your clients about their workers’ compensation cases and letting them know what’s going on. Giving them timely and sound legal advice. Patiently discussing their options, with an understanding of the temporary strain that our workers’ compensation system puts on injured workers’ lives, and on the lives of their family members. Explaining complicated legal issues in a way that folks who don’t have a law degree can understand. Taking an interest in clients and conversing with them like a person, and not like a cash cow.
At Hart Law, we take a great interest in our clients and their cases. We consider ourselves privileged to be able to represent folks involved in workers’ compensation claims, and we really like what we do. We don’t talk to our clients a bunch just because the Rules Of Professional Conduct make us do it; we actually enjoy visiting with working folks, and we always speak in a language that makes sense. When clients call us about their claims, we know who they are and what’s going on with their case. We know this, because we work on our cases frequently and with relentless attention to detail. When our clients ask us to do something related to their case, we do it; usually immediately. At the end of the day, we’re just normal, hard working, down-to-earth people, just like the folks we represent.
Lawyers should actually want to do all of this, but, unfortunately, some of them don’t do it very well. If you’ve been injured at work and think you might like some help from a law firm that spends a lot of time communicating with its clients and enjoys doing it, we’d be glad to visit with your about your case, any time.
Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
We hear this question from injured workers all the time, and the correct answer is “probably not.” Under the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Act, employers have a duty to return an injured employee to work if suitable employment is available within the employee’s physical and mental limitations. Employers often either ignore this duty completely, or they provide “suitable employment” to an injured worker temporarily, and then suddenly (and without good reason) take the job away. This may very well violate State Law, and it could also lead to the employer and its insurance company owing an injured worker a substantial amount of additional workers’ compensation benefits in a claim.
Getting the insurance company to admit it’s wrong and pay this additional cash is, unfortunately, a big problem for injured folks. The insurance carrier almost never voluntarily pays any additional money in this scenario, and many injured Arkansans who suspect they’ve been swindled out of a job end up simply convincing themselves that since Arkansas is an “at will” employment state, the employer can basically give or take away any job as it pleases.
The bad news for employers and the insurance folks is that Hart Law knows how important having the ability to earn a living is to working Arkansans, and we have been fighting the insurance companies over taking jobs away from our injured clients for years. In this case https://caselaw.findlaw.com/ar-court-of-appeals/1416671.html, for example, we went all the way to the Arkansas Court of Appeals to obtain additional benefits for a client who was provided with a light-duty position that was later withdrawn. His job was yanked for no good reason, and we made them pay.
If you have a claim and something about your job situation doesn’t seem quite right, it may not be. Call or e-mail us and we’d be glad to visit with you about your claim and your options, anytime.
Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
We successfully resolved a couple foot injury claims recently, so I thought I’d write a short workers’ compensation foot injury blog. I don’t think there’s much dispute over the fact that on-the-job foot injuries are particularly devastating to working folks. Obviously, if it becomes difficult to simply stand and walk, it’s also very hard to perform a job while not being able to stand or walk very well. Secondly, feet are made up of many, many different bones, joints, tendons, muscles and ligaments; all working together to allow folks to move. When one part of this complex structure is injured and has to be fixed, it is often quite difficult for doctors to patch things back together like they were before. It commonly takes months and months for an injured worker to heal following a foot injury; while they’re receiving a whole bunch of medical care and are usually quite depressed about their situation.
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