5 Good Reasons Why Workers Hire an Attorney

Posted by Sierra Powell on June 8th, 2021

The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) offers workers' compensation for injured employees or workers who get ill in the line of duty. This compensation plan operates like an insurance policy that pays medical bills, covers lost wages, and offers other forms of compensation for injured workers to get back on their feet. Ideally, most if not all workers should have employees' compensation coverage.

The Difference Between L&I and Self-Insured Workers' Compensation

For most states, the states' Department of Labor is tasked with administering employees' compensation claims. Therefore, employers rely on this body to compensate workers where necessary. However, some employers are self-insured, which means they liaise with their employees directly to provide the workers' comp benefits.

The Knowledge You Need Upon Getting Injuries at Work

Unfortunately, most people do not know their rights as workers. The truth is, it's your right as a worker to file a workers' comp claim if you acquire an occupational illness or get injured at work. Once the claim gets verified and there are facts that the injury or sickness occurred due to your career or work-related activity, the claim will likely be approved, and you'll be compensated accordingly.

Workers' Compensation Benefits

There are various workers' comp benefits that can assist you in recovering your lost wage or medical expenses as you recover from an occupational disease or on-the-job injuries. Some of the L&I benefits you'll enjoy are medical care, travel reimbursement, property reimbursement, permanent partial disability, lifetime pension, death benefits, loss of earning power benefits, and time loss and wage replacement benefits.

Independent Medical Examinations

During a workers' comp claim, you may be asked to undertake an independent medical assessment. An IME aims to assess your health and acquire the opinion of a specialized physician instead of the view of your primary provider. However, there have been cases where independent medical examiners have misdiagnosed workers. Other times, the medical examiners claim that work-related injuries seem to have been preexisting conditions outside the workplace.

Why Choose an Expert to Handle Your Workers' Compensation Case?

A workers' comp claim can be direct and still fail to navigate the administration of the L&I system. Claims made to this body can fail approval for minor reasons, yet making the institution reverse its decision is no joke. Reversing an initial denial will call for knowledge, experience, and persistence, and only an L&I attorney can hack the process.

How to Start a Workers' Compensation Claim?

When you face a work situation that calls for a claim, there are three options you can use to start the process. The filing options include by phone, online, or through your doctor's office. When using a doctor to file acclaim, he needs to confirm that your injuries are work-related, state your ability to resume work, and complete an accident report form.

The impact of most work-related injuries is long-term suffering and trauma. Sadly, the worker's physical pain is topped with massive hospital bills, lost employment, and emotional strain. However, you can get relief from the medical costs with proper representation, having been compensated accordingly.

How employment lawyers manage to get the most compensation is by bringing your grief to a reality that portrays the real-life inconveniences of your acquired injury. The experts can also calculate how much wages you will lose when not working and argue the case in your favor.

The same case applies when arguing about medical compensation to the already spent medical bills and the projected bills in the future. The trickiest of them all is trying to get compensation due to emotional stress. Being an inexperienced worker, you may not have enough convincing power. These are some of the nitty-gritty details that you may miss, and that will disqualify you from getting adequate compensation.

When you allow experts to handle your claim, you enjoy some peace of mind, and you can focus and put all your energy into recovering. The claims process entails research to collect evidence and lots of paperwork that is hectic to handle.

When the time hire attorneys come, ensure they have handled such cases before so that they can relate to what you and your family are going through. It may not be an immediate process to identify efficient workers' comp attorneys, but it's not that complicated either.