A fairly common work injury scenario in Arkansas goes something like this: A middle-aged employee, with a history of heavy manual labor jobs, twists his knee at work. He’s never really had any knee problems to speak of before; or at least none that he knows about. The treating physician does surgery to fix torn cartilage, or maybe a torn ligament. The operation doesn’t work, and the doctor says that the claimant needs his knee replaced. The claim seems to be going great, right up until the doctor recommends the knee replacement. The insurance company then alleges that the surgery isn’t work-related.
Unfortunately, this happens to working Arkansans far too often. Knee replacements are expensive, involve substantial residual permanent impairment, and can make it so all or at least portions of an injured worker’s claim will remain open for life. Insurance companies know this, and routinely try to skirt paying a partial or total knee replacement claim by making the argument that the claimant had “chronic” or “degenerative” knee problems that were present before the work injury. While it is true that many knee claims we handle involve claimants who have chronic, preexisting knee problems they don’t necessarily know about, the fact remains that if a work injury is found to be even the slightest cause of the need for a knee replacement, the insurance company is probably going to have to pay for it. If you’re content, however, to blindly rely upon the insurance carrier’s kindness and good will in this regard, you may be out of luck.
Have knee injury questions? Feel free to give us a call anytime.
Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
Which attorney to hire is an important question about an important choice. A choice so important, in fact, that a favorable outcome in your case could very well depend upon it. Some law firms handle Workers’ Compensation matters as a ‘side job’ of sorts; to pay the light bills and hope that it leads some other, more valuable case. Retaining a law firm that dabbles in five or ten different areas of law to handle a Workers’ Compensation claim seems sort of like hiring a knee, shoulder and hip specialist to operate on your brain. Some law firms use television ads and big billboards to clamor for the attention of the injured masses, hoping to land new Workers’ Compensation clients. At the end of the day, however, judges and insurance companies really don’t care whether or not your attorney is on TV. They’re interested in knowing if he’s good at what he does.
Believe it or not, there are Workers’ Compensation claimants out there who know basically nothing about the lawyer they’ve hired to represent them in their case. They just saw some ad somewhere, and then signed on the dotted line. When they call for information about their case, their “lawyer” may be “out,” and they’re shuffled over to some assistant who may or may not know anything of value about either the law or the claim. At Hart Law, we want to know our clients, and we want them to know us. When our clients call the firm, we know who they are, and we know about their case. We believe that our clients deserve a very high level combination of legal skill and customer service; and we deliver that, every single day. Insurance adjusters respect our work, and when we appear in court on your behalf, the folks there already know that we are experienced, successful, and highly skilled.
You may only have one shot at picking the right workers’ compensation attorney. Before selecting one, it’s important to know what (and who) you’re actually getting. At Hart Law, what you see is exactly what you get. Workers’ compensation law is what we do.
Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
Many Arkansans suffer burn injuries at work each year, and some of them are quite severe. The skin is our largest organ. When it is badly burned, the result is severe pain, a lengthy healing process, and often a high degree of permanent physical impairment. Because of this, work-related burn cases can be highly complex. The insurance carrier usually fights hard to end medical care in the claim as quickly as possible. Getting a proper permanent impairment rating from the treating physician (or from some other doctor), at the end of the case, is crucial to the monetary value of the claim. Unfortunately, many physicians either don’t want to do this, or don’t know how. At Hart Law we know how to handle burn injury cases to achieve maximum results. Let us help you get the benefits you deserve. Call today!
Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
Some workers’ compensation injuries are deemed, by law, to be “permanent,” and some are not. If an injured worker has a permanent injury, he or she may be entitled to receive a permanent impairment rating, which is worth money, in the form of permanent disability benefits. Impairment ratings are usually determined by a doctor (mostly by the treating physician, but not always), who uses a book that is filled with complicated tables, graphs and charts. Sometimes, doctors simply get the impairment rating wrong. Many times, insurance companies will try to get out of paying the impairment rating by alleging that it’s not valid, either in whole, or in part. Sometimes the insurance company will write an injured worker who has a permanent impairment and explain the impairment rating incorrectly; misstate the law; miscalculate the benefits owed; and/or advise that it is only paying some or none of the impairment rating. One reason insurance companies do this is because they know most injured folks have no idea about how impairment ratings work, and no idea how to correctly value them.
Having a permanent impairment rating can be very important to a claim, because it potentially opens the door for an injured worker to receive some of the most valuable benefits allowed under our workers’ compensation law. If there is no impairment rating or if the impairment rating is deemed to be invalid, these benefits may not be available. If you already have an impairment rating; think you may get one in the future; or think you may deserve one, we’d be glad to visit with you, about ratings and your rights, anytime.
By: Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
Rule 099.34 Impairment Rating Guide
It’s quite possible.
Insurance companies will try basically anything to defeat a workers’ compensation claim, including paying a private investigator hundreds or even thousands of dollars to track, watch and record an injured worker’s activities. A skilled insurance lawyer can then use this evidence to build a case against a claimant that may eventually become too damaging to overcome. Unfortunately, it happens all the time – many times in cases where an injured employee has not had the benefit of visiting with a workers’ compensation lawyer about how the system works and the common tactics used by insurance companies to impair claims. I know all of the common tactics utilized by insurance companies to impair claims, including surveillance, because I used to be an insurance lawyer. That’s some pretty valuable experience to have in your corner.
By: Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
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