Why You Need A Workers Compensation Attorney After A Workplace Injury

If you’ve suffered an injury at work, you may be thinking about hiring a workers’ compensation attorney. Whether you will need one or not will depend on how serious your injury is and how complex your case. You may be happy to deal with it yourself if the injury is minor, you haven’t missed much time off work, and your employers are cooperating. However even in these cases you may want to contact an attorney to see how much compensation you should be asking for. If your injury is more serious or legally complex, if you can’t work for a considerable period of time, or if your employer is denying liability, you should contact an attorney to fight your corner. This also applies if your employer is offering insufficient compensation to cover lost wages and medical bills, or if they are making life difficult for you.

What they do

Personal injury claims have strict deadlines, so you should act as soon as possible. Employers are likely to have insurers with deep pockets who can drag claims out or try and push you into early settlement - sometimes before the medical implications or your injury are fully known. An experienced attorney will redress this balance and ensure that you are properly medically evaluated, rather than just accepting the medical reports produced by insurers. They will also calculate the value of your claim and check whether any third parties could be responsible for negligence as well.

How to find an attorney

Ask colleagues, friends or family if they have dealt with suitable attorneys in the past. The internet is also a good resource and here you can find the Workers’ Compensation Lawyers directory. All Workers’ Compensation Lawyers have to be registered through a local state bar association, many of whom will also have a database of lawyers by practice area.

What to look for

Whoever you appoint, it’s important to do your research. The lawyer must be registered as specialist and you should check on the background and level of expertise. When you have created a shortlist you should then ‘Interview’ the prospective lawyers and ask them about their success rate and references and see if they communicate well with you.

Fees

Most long-term disability lawyers will act on a contingency basis, so their fees are not paid unless they recover sums for you. They will typically take 20-40% of sums awarded, and you need to be clear exactly how the agreement will work. For example, you are likely to have to pay any costs that the lawyer has incurred for medical reports, travelling, filing fees etc, at the end of the case, even if you lose it. You may also be eligible for legal aid in certain situations or pro-bono help, so that’s worth looking into.