You’ve been injured on the job. Five things you should tell your attorney you’ve hired to help you with your on-the-job injury.
You’ve contacted an attorney and have procured their services to help navigate through the process of obtaining worker’s compensation benefits. Transparent communication between client and attorney is absolutely critical during the lifecycle of your claim.
Let’s talk about five things you should be sure to notify your attorney of should the situation arise.
Number one: Tell your attorney if you’ve moved, stopped getting mail, changed phone number/email address, etc.
Essentially, our means for getting in touch with you has changed, and we can no longer contact you via our information on file. We need to ensure we have a way to reach you when necessary. Why? Good question.
Let’s say you’ve moved out of the area and need medical treatment transferred to your new location. We’ll need to know where you’ve moved to in order to arrange the transfer of care. Likewise, if you’ve changed your phone number, we’d want to make sure your new one is on file. When there’s an update on your case, a quick phone conversation is often needed to bring you up to speed.
Basically, we need to be able to get in touch with you, so if something changes, let us know!
Number two: Tell your attorney if your employment has changed.
Scenario – due to an injury you suffered on the job, you’ve been placed on disability and are collecting worker’s comp. Your employer reaches out to offer you a different position that would allow you to work while receiving treatment, but you decline the offer. This decision could result in your employer attempting to cut off your benefits.
The same goes for other changes in employment as well. Being laid off, quitting your current job to start a new one, starting a new job while on disability, etc. Any and all of these can negatively impact your worker’s compensation claim.
Number three: Tell your attorney if you have issues with medical care documentation.
We want to ensure that you’re receiving proper documentation from your primary treating physician. At the conclusion of most appointments, you should receive what’s called a WC-164. This one-pager consists of pertinent information relating to your injury (such as date of occurrence), the physician’s assessment on that day, their plan for treatment going forward, any restrictions deemed appropriate, and so-on.
This documentation needs to make its way to us as soon as possible after each appointment. Do not assume the insurance company or doctor’s office will take this initiative, as oftentimes this is not the case.
Number four: Tell your attorney if you receive any money from a source other than your worker’s compensation.
If you start receiving social security disability, begin drawing unemployment, file a lawsuit against the person who injured you and win compensation, etc., you need to let us know. Additional income of any kind has the potential to put your worker’s compensation benefits at risk.
Number five: Tell your attorney if you’re going on a vacation, have fun, but let us know you’re going away!
Even if it’s just going to be for a few days, chance might have it that we’ll need to get in touch with you during this time. Send us a quick email saying you’ll be out of town, and when you expect to be back.
As always, if you or anybody you know, has been injured at work in the state of Colorado, we here at Kaplan Morrell are ready to help you get the worker’s compensation you deserve. Please feel free to come and talk with us. We offer free consultations. Give us a call today at (970) 356-9898.