Four Ways to Get the Best Outcome in Your Workers’ Compensation Claim

You have been injured. Your health and your finances are at risk. You need to put money in your pocket and food on the table every week. There are better ways to make this happen than others.

You probably want to know what you can do today to get the best results for your case and for your health. Here are the top four things you can do to win your workers comp case.

1. Tell your lawyer everything that has to do with your injury, work and medical condition. Nobody likes being blindsided. And when a lawyer is in front of a judge or trying to negotiate with not a lawyer, it’s the worst time to get news about a case. Lots of things, probably  most things, can be dealt with if we know about it.  You might think that it’s none of the company’s business that you had a DWI seven years ago.  But not telling your lawyer about it so that your answers to the company’s questions are wrong just made it the company’s business. Don’t make a minor problem into a major concern.

2. Follow instructions from the doctor. There’s a reason that you went to see the doctor. You want to get better  Occasionally doctors will give advice or instructions that you don’t believe will help. But simply ignoring them won’t do the trick. Having a discussion with the doctor or at least trying the recommendation is what you should try first. If it doesn’t work, try something else. But you cannot afford to simply do your own thing when it comes to your medical care.

3. Looking for work. This one can sink your case. If you can work, you must look for work under North Carolina workers’ comp law. There are only a few exceptions to this rule, and no one want to rely on  exception, do they? Looking for work  should be something that you do to the best of your ability, without regard to whether or not the job is going to be something as good as you did before.  Lots of people get hung up on that. Just look for work and see what comes up.

4. Going to school. Maybe school is not your thing. Perhaps money and timing meant that you didn’t get the education that you could’ve got when you were younger. But now that you have a workers’ compensation injury you may not be able to do the work that you did before. This may be an opportunity to ask the workers’ compensation carrier to pay for your training at a community college. Think about what the future could hold for you.

Workers’ comp in North Carolina is meant to replace part of an injured employee’s income.  Don’t be fooled:  you are responsible for proving your case.  If you have questions about what you can do when you have been seriously injured, call Valerie Johnson at 919-240-4054.  We are here to help.