Re: busted up leg REAL good at work, surgery good, in hospital/recovery home. a weeki
Man, that sounds bad, ezbtr. Hope you'll be able to get mobile sometime soon. Don't know what you had, but 24 staples and rod in the leg tells me most of what I need to know. Hang in there, bud.
avenger, it may sound scary but it's how it is. Workers comp is insurance, and the aim of insurance companies is to close the deal as cheaply as possible. For worker's comp, that involves paying the worker's salary while he's off work and if the injury is permanent, paying a cash settlement. The cash settlement will be as low as they can talk you in to taking. Almost nobody knows what their rights are in these cases. I certainly didn't 35 years ago when the step on my truck iced up and I fell off and blew out my back. Workmans comp paid my straight time for the week and a half I was off (I would have been working close to 60 hours a week at that time of year) and I thought that was all there was. Also at the time, I didn't realize the injury would be a permanent problem. Now I was able to go back to truck driving with only moderate discomfort so I wasn't really too bad off. Certainly nothing like ez is talking about. And not like a number of people I know who who a got little bit of salary continuation, maybe a 10 or 15 thousand dollar settlement and then got fired because they couldn't do their job anymore. THAT is where the lawyer comes in.
OK, long story short. As you might guess, I have a personal situation. My youngest brother sustained a disabling on the job injury a little under 3 years ago. He had worked there for about 28 years and was familiar with how they dealt with workmans comp situations so after a few months of trying to deal with it on his own, he went to a lawyer who specialized in workmans comp. He asked what it would cost and the lawyer told him it would be 30% of whatever he was awarded beyond salary continuation. He called me up and asked what I thought about it. He told me what the guy thought they could do and I told him it was 70% of something against 100% of little or nothing. He figures the lawyer has been worth his weight in gold and not just on the basis of negotiating cash settlements, but in advice on dealing with a large number of non-cash issues that have arisen.
So I'm saying if you're hurt on the job, at least talk to a WC lawyer. It won't cost anything to talk. /sermon
