Many Thanks To Our Clients
At Hart Law, we really like our clients. They’re good, hard working folks who we genuinely enjoy getting to know as we’re helping to guide them through their workers’ compensation claims. Without our clients, there would be no Hart Law. We go the extra mile because we’re privileged to have such great people to represent, and we’re eternally grateful for their business and support. Thanks for being a part of the Hart Law family.
Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
In Arkansas, some workers’ compensation injuries are considered, 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 that is worth money, in the form of permanent disability benefits. Impairment ratings are usually determined by a doctor (they can also be calculated by a Judge) who uses a book to do so that is filled with complicated tables, graphs, numbers, and charts.
Sometimes, doctors simply get the impairment rating wrong. Often, insurance companies will try to get out of paying an impairment rating, either in whole or in part, by alleging that the rating is invalid under Arkansas law or failing to request permanent impairment all together. Many times, an insurance adjuster will write an injured worker who has a permanent impairment and explain the rating incorrectly; misstate the law; miscalculate the benefits owed; and/or advise that the carrier is only paying some or even 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. Insurance adjusters also know that if there’s no impairment rating, the injured worker is going to have a very difficult time asking a Judge to award benefits for a loss of earning capacity; permanent total disability; and/or vocational retraining. These benefits can be very valuable.
If you already have a permanent impairment rating; are in the process of getting one; think you might have one; or think you may deserve one, we’d be glad to visit with you about ratings and your rights, any time.
By: Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
Insurance Adjuster, speaking to Claimant: “You don’t need an attorney because I’m going to settle the case with you.” Unfortunately, we hear this story quite often. Insurance companies care about one thing – cash. They exist by making large profits, and they do this by paying out a whole lot less money than they take in. All insurance companies have lawyers who are on call, basically, to assist in this regard. They just love it when you don’t have one.
Because of the multitude of benefits potentially available to an injured worker under our Workers’ Compensation Act, it would be very difficult, if not impossible, for an injured worker to even attempt to guess how much his or her case might potentially be worth. Insurance adjusters know this, so they try to run the settlement show, completely unimpeded. A typical scenario would be for the adjuster to send the Claimant a letter with various “calculations,” followed by an offer to close the case for a certain amount. Another tactic is to have their insurance lawyer (most of whom know a whole bunch about workers’ compensation law) approach the injured worker with a settlement number and an offer to draft a set of settlement paperwork for the Claimant to sign. With either option, one thing is pretty much for certain – these insurance folks probably aren’t going to just give away a bunch of money, unless they’re aggressively pressed to do so.
Although the Workers’ Compensation Act has a built in safety provision for injured workers, wherein all settlements have to be approved by a judge, the Commission has the authority to approve a settlement forged by an insurance company and an unrepresented Claimant for an amount that is at the very lowest end of the claim’s fair market settlement value, or even lower, so long as it is deemed to be in the Claimant’s best interests. Doesn’t it sound like a better option to arrive at the settlement hearing with a deal that’s on the very highest end of the claim’s fair market settlement value, or even more?
At Hart Law, we squeeze every dime of settlement cash out of insurance companies. Have questions about your settlement or how much your case could be worth? We’re here to help, anytime.
By: Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
In Arkansas, some workers’ compensation injuries are considered, 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 that is worth money, in the form of permanent disability benefits. Impairment ratings are usually determined by a doctor (they can also be calculated by a Judge) who uses a book to do so that is filled with complicated tables, graphs, numbers, and charts.
Sometimes, doctors simply get the impairment rating wrong. Often, insurance companies will try to get out of paying an impairment rating, either in whole or in part, by alleging that the rating is invalid under Arkansas law or failing to request permanent impairment all together. Many times, an insurance adjuster will write an injured worker who has a permanent impairment and explain the rating incorrectly; misstate the law; miscalculate the benefits owed; and/or advise that the carrier is only paying some or even 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. Insurance adjusters also know that if there’s no impairment rating, the injured worker is going to have a very difficult time asking a Judge to award benefits for a loss of earning capacity; permanent total disability; and/or vocational retraining. These benefits can be very valuable.
If you already have a permanent impairment rating; are in the process of getting one; think you might have one; or think you may deserve one, we’d be glad to visit with you about ratings and your rights, any time.
By: Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
How Insurance Companies Try To Rip Off Injured Workers: A Series – Volume 4: Light-Duty Jobs
Under the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Act, employers have a statutory obligation to provide modified-duty work to injured employees who are in an active healing period and restricted from performing full-duty work, if the company is able to do so. If the employer provides the injured worker with a light-duty job and the employee refuses to perform same, temporary disability benefits could be suspended by the insurance carrier, indefinitely. So, how do many employers and insurance companies use this statutory duty to their advantage? They make up the worst light-duty job available and then order the injured employee to show up and do it, hoping it will cause him or her to immediately quit. Examples of some particularly shady light-duty jobs we have seen concocted in the past include: 1. Cleaning all the company toilets and then washing the human resource director’s car. 2. Feather dusting the shop, repeatedly; and then starting over and doing it again, once that’s been done. 3. Working in a soup kitchen, 75 miles from the Claimant’s house. 4. Sitting at a table sorting small screws, day after day. 5. Walking around the shop in circles, sweeping with one arm. 6. Sitting on a stool all day, in a dark room. Should the employer do this? No. Can they do this? It depends on how aggressive and experienced your workers’ compensation attorney is. If any of this already sounds familiar or you are concerned about a potential return to light-duty work, give us a call. We’d be happy to visit with you about your options.
Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
Our Workers’ Compensation Law allows and even encourages insurance carriers to hire ‘nurse case managers’ to handle and direct an injured worker’s medical care in a claim. Although many nurse case managers are generally good people, make no mistake – they are paid agents of the insurance company, making it heavily debatable whether the nurse could ever really be a ‘neutral’ party in the case. In a typical scenario, and as discussed in previous blogs, the nurse case manager will contact the claimant in one way or another, often times almost immediately after a work injury occurs, to say that she’s been asked to appear in the case in order to make sure the injured worker gets proper medical care. The problem with a statement like this is the definition of “proper” medical care. When the nurse case manager begins directing the medical care in a claim, it is fairly routine, for example, for her to shuffle the claimant away from physicians who are viewed by the insurance company as “claimant friendly”; and to start making appointments for the claimant to see doctors who are well-known in the industry to be “insurance friendly.” The hope is that by the time the injured worker figures this out, the medical evidence in the case will have already been terminally impaired past the point of no return. One protection against this is a treating physician who will tell a nurse case manager “no” when she tries to manipulate the claim; but doctors with this kind of backbone are few and far between. It’s exponentially more helpful for the claimant to be able to rely upon an experienced workers’ compensation attorney who will aggressively tell the nurse “no,” if necessary, which is exactly what Hart Law does.
Have a question about your nurse case manager? Give us a call, anytime.
Neal L. Hart, Attorney at Law
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