Abington, PA Workers' Compensation Lawyer

The adjuster’s job is to save insurance companies money.  No matter how nice they may seem, they are not working for you and cannot be relied upon to provide you the straight truth. That is because they are paid to work against your best interest.  There is no law requiring them to tell you the truth or to explain your legal rights.  They are not lawyers.

You hire an attorney because you understand that you will get a better result than if you represented yourself.  You hire an attorney to make your life easier and to get meaningful guidance at a difficult time.  You hire an attorney to get you every dollar you are entitled to.

You have the absolute right to represent yourself, but if you do, the Judge is not allowed to go easy on you or to give you legal advice.  The Judge is required to hold you to the same standards as your employer’s attorney.  You will be expected to take medical depositions at your own expense and to know what your burden of proof is and how to meet it.

Most employer attorneys only handle workers’ compensation cases and know the law and the Judges extremely well.  No matter how nice they may be, the fact is that they only represent your employer’s interests, which are rarely the same as yours.  It is their job to settle for the lowest amount possible, not for what the case would resolve for if you had an attorney.  Even if the defense attorney knows you are selling your case short and feels bad about it inside, he or she cannot ethically tell you that.

By choosing Kaufman you are taking control of your case by being represented by a Certified Workers’ Compensation Expert that will always act in your best interest to get you all the benefits you deserve.  Retaining an attorney gives you the freedom to focus on healing from your injury because we handle all the confusing legal stuff for you.  We will deal with the insurance company, answer your questions, and even help you find the right doctors.

Bigger is not always better. You simply cannot be an effective attorney if you have too many cases. If you do not have the time to talk with and listen to your clients you cannot represent them well. You cannot get the best results for people you barely know.

At large firms, cases are tossed around like footballs. You may never talk to the same attorney twice and may have a hard time reaching an attorney instead of a paralegal. Jenifer is a solo practitioner and handles all the important legal stuff herself. She is there for you however long your case lasts. When you call, she knows who you are and remembers what is happening in your case. She recognizes how stressful being out of work can be and that you are going to have questions and concerns about your future. You deserve to understand the process. Being injured affects you and your family in so many ways.

Unlike the large firms, you do not need to make an appointment to talk to Jenifer, you just call. She is at her office every day. Our office is conveniently located in Abington. You do not need to drive into Center City or pay to park to meet with her. She will also meet you closer to home if you are unable to travel to her office.

Workers’ comp attorneys work contingently, which means we only get paid if we are successful in getting or defending your right to wage loss benefits and a Judge approves our fee.

The standard workers comp attorneys’ fee in Pennsylvania is 20% of wage loss benefits awarded to you. No attorney can legally charge you more than 20%. Unlike many attorneys, we never charge you a fee on medical benefits. If we are successful, the insurance carrier will deduct our fee and send it directly to us. You never write us a check.

We also never charge you for our costs. If we are successful, most of these will be reimbursed by the comp carrier.

The answer to both these questions is no. That may seem unfair but let us explain why that is. The workers compensation system is limited to medical coverage and payment for any wage loss. There are also some special payments if you lose hearing or vision, suffer an amputation, get a scar on your face, or are killed on the job. But that is it. Even though being injured on the job causes real pain and suffering, there is no additional financial compensation for it. We empathize and recognize that it is unfair, but that is the law.
Relative to suing for negligence, in Pennsylvania it is the law that you are not allowed to sue your employer if you are hurt at work. Your only choice is to seek workers compensation benefits. That is because workers compensation is an exclusive remedy.
The exclusive remedy is not all bad though. The flip side of the law not allowing you to sue for employer negligence is that workers’ comp, as a result, was designed to be a “no fault” system. Unlike in personal injury cases, the Judge does not make an initial determination if you were at fault for causing the accident. Even if you were not as careful as you could have been on the job, you can still get workers comp (with the exceptions being self-inflicted injuries and the injury being caused by you being under the influence). Ultimately, no fault means you get workers comp regardless of whether the actions of you, your employer, or some combination caused your injury.

Your Employer is entitled to ask for a drug screen after an injury. It is oftentimes more harmful to your case to refuse the test, then to test positive for marijuana or other drugs.

Even if you test positive for drugs, this does not mean that you are not eligible for workers’ comp. For the drug test results to be relevant, your employer is required to prove that intoxication from the drug use caused the accident. Just having them in your system is not enough. It is well-known that you can test positive for some drugs days, weeks or even months after using them. As a practical matter, it is usually very difficult and expensive for an employer to prove in court that taking a drug caused an accident, so positive drug test results are not often brought up. In fact, the Judge will reject any evidence about a drug test as prejudicial to you unless the employer is also presenting evidence that the accident was caused because you were high or under the influence.

Refusing a drug test makes it look like you have something to hide. It may also violate your employer’s policies, especially when there is a written handbook, which can mean losing the wage loss portion of your case.

Often after an injury, an employee is told where to get medical treatment and told they must see these doctors for the first 90 days. While there is a 90-day rule in Pennsylvania, there are several things an employer must do if they want the rule to apply:

• Give you the list of approved panel doctors at the time of your hiring; and
• Give you the list after you are hurt; and post the list in a common area such as a breakroom or lunchroom.

Note I use “and,” not “or.” If your employer does not do all three they cannot make you treat with their doctors. They also cannot tell you which of the doctors on the list you have to see. You get to choose.

If you are not provided a list, or the list does not comply with the above, you can and should treat with a doctor of your choice. Even if your employer complies with the above, you should know that the second a denial (Notice of Compensation Denial) is issued on your case, you are no longer required to treat with the employer’s doctors. This holds true even if 90 days have not passed since the injury.

You should always provide immediate notice to your supervisor if you are injured on the job or involved in a work accident, even if you think you are going to be okay in a few days or will not need to miss work. If possible, ask to fill out an incident report. Many people ask, why not wait and see how it goes before giving notice?

Just because you are not in pain after an accident does not always mean that you are not injured. Sometimes you go to bed fine and wake up the next day feeling like a train hit you. Tolerable pain may progressively worsen. If it does turn out you are fine, no harm has been done by reporting the incident.

Furthermore, waiting days or weeks to report an injury makes the insurance company think that you were injured at home or that you have some other reason for making up a claim. Many times, well-meaning and honest people keep working in pain after they are injured. They don’t want to rock the boat by reporting an injury and hope the pain will go away on its own. As a result, they don’t meet quotas or leave early due to their injury. This often results in a performance warning or even being fired. Waiting until you are disciplined or fired for performance issues to report a work injury pretty much guarantees your claim will be denied. The insurance company will not view you as the loyal, hard-working employee you are, but as someone looking for revenge.

The other reasons to give notice right away are that some employers require drug testing after an accident or will give you the chance to work light-duty. Some employers also have lists of approved doctors to treat with following a work injury. Those medical visits are covered at no cost to you.

Pennsylvania workers’ compensation laws provide coverage for all types of work injuries, even ones you might not have thought of as covered. In addition to common low back and musculoskeletal injuries, did you know the following injuries are covered in Pennsylvania?

1. Injuries caused by repetitive work, such as carpal tunnel and tennis elbow;
2. Heart attacks while working or as a result of job stress;
3. Psychological injuries caused by abnormal work conditions or as a result of physical injuries;
4. Illness from exposure to chemicals and mold;
5. Occupational diseases (silicosis, firefighter cancer and heart diseases);
6. MRSA Staph infections (common in health care settings and prisons);
7. Concussion and traumatic brain injuries;
8. Hearing loss caused by exposure to noise at work;
   Scars to the face and neck;
9. Eye injuries and vision loss;
10. Amputations;
11. Injuries sustained while traveling for work or attending work-related functions;
12. Hernias;
13. Aggravation of pre-existing degenerative conditions of the body;
14. Injuries occurring on company parking lots or in company vans; and
15. Injuries due to workplace assaults.

The list goes on and on. Not sure if your injury is covered? Call us. We call you back.

If you work in Pennsylvania or the accident happened here, you are covered.  It does not matter if you are a temporary worker, if you are paid in cash, live out-of-state, or even if the accident happened the first day on the job.

Pennsylvania generally excludes independent contractors from workers’ compensation.  However, just because your employer calls you an independent contractor does not mean that you really are one.  If your employer tells you what to do and controls all aspects of your work, you may legally be an employee able to receive workers’ compensation.  Landscapers, truck drivers and construction laborers are often intentionally mislabeled as independent contractors by their employers to avoid workers’ compensation claims.  Not sure if you are covered?  Call us.  We call you back.

In addition to wage loss from the job you are injured at, you are also entitled to collect wage loss for any other jobs you had at the time of your injury if you can’t work.

If you do return to work but can only work part-time or earn less money as a result of your injury, you can get workers’ compensation wage loss benefits in the amount of 2/3 of the loss of your earnings.

Other benefits available include specific payments for loss of extremities, vision loss, hearing loss, and scarring on the face and neck. You do not need to miss work to claim these benefits. Fatal claim benefits are payable to spouses, children and dependents to replace the earnings of the loved one that they relied upon, and to defer funeral expenses.