What is Workers’ Compensation Insurance?

Workers’ Comp Claim – Your employer pays monthly premiums for this insurance for all employees because it is the law across the United States, except for the state of Texas. If you are hurt or injured at your job and cannot work for the short or long term, you can file a compensation claim or lawsuit to help pay your wages and mounting medical bills associated with your accident/injury.

Be aware that many employers do not want to pay you any more compensation than they must, and millions of claims are denied daily for various reasons, and unfortunately, money is the bottom line in any compensation claim.

A Seasoned Accident/Injury Attorney Fights for Your Compensation Rights of Workers’ Comp Claim

If you receive injuries on the job, please immediately call a seasoned and experienced wrongful accident/injury/death attorney to make sure your compensation claim pays you what you are entitled to receive and you are not denied your compensation claim. If you do not hire a compensation attorney, your employer, insurance company, and the attorney can take advantage of your situation.

Never feel embarrassed or guilty about calling a wrongful injury attorney. You are protecting your rights as a victim. You can bet that your company has a team of seasoned attorneys working for them. You will never win your claim by representing yourself.

Generally, when you file a compensation claim and cannot work due to your injuries, there is a seven-day waiting period before you can start to receive money that pays for your wages. This compensation is not your total wages but is a percentage of your weekly net income. Compensation should also start paying all your medical bills associated with your injury, but often the insurance company is slow in paying these bills and often refuses to pay.

You have 24 hours to turn in an accident/incident form to your employer detailing what happened to you. Would you please make copies of all the paperwork you turn in to your employer and insurance company and keep it in a safe place? Never assume that your boss is your friend and would do anything for you.

Over half of these claims end up paying the injured employee within a year of filing. Filing a workers’ comp is always an uphill battle, which is why you need your accident/injury attorney by your side.

Workers’ Comp Claim – Denial of Compensation Claims

If the compensation insurance sends you a denial letter it explains your right to file an appeal and how to file this appeal. It tells you that you have 30 to 90 days to file your appeal and you dare not miss this deadline. It is your attorney who can keep your claim from being denied in the first place. Some states have different levels of the appeal process. Denial of compensation could be due to,

• Possible fraud
• Administrative or clerical error
• An irregularity in the system, such as a technical error
• Employer attorney proved that you did not deserve compensation.

You and your workers’ comp lawyer must review all of your documentation. Remember, you keep copies of everything and have them neatly filed in a folder for quick access.

The next step is to file an appeal. At this point, things become convoluted and complicated, but you have your attorney by your side protecting your rights. Your insurance is not working for you; it works for your employer. In many instances, things start to turn in your favor when your employer and their insurance company find out you have a seasoned and experienced attorney working for you.

• You may have to have a second opinion or physical exam by another doctor regarding your accident and the injuries associated with this accident.
• Your employer’s attorneys may set up a mediation conference with a third-party neutral person to propose a settlement of sorts. However, this person cannot force a decision from either party.
• At this informal meeting, a discussion and debate proceed regarding your payment. This meeting is not a court, so there are no witness statements or oaths taken. A mediator or third party is assigned to your case to assist both sides in agreeing to your settlement.

If neither side can agree on a settlement and the meeting fails, the next step is an administrative hearing with an administrative judge, and the burden of proof is on you. It would be best if you had your attorney by your side, and we would be there fighting for and guiding you through this process. The judge can take several days or weeks to decide on your appeal. This meeting means that,

• We present evidence through witnesses and cite pertinent employment laws of the state.
• We will highlight your medical records.

Further appeals may be possible. A panel of workers’ comp judges and a workers’ compensation appeals board are in charge of this second appeal. This meeting is the time to argue about any errors by the hearing officer. This second appeal process could take months to complete.

If the second meeting fails, you have the right to take a final step towards compensation through your state’s court system. However, a settlement may arise. This last process can take years to complete. Your employer and the insurance company may argue that,

• Your incident report and claim are inaccurate.
• You were not at work when you were injured.
• Your verbal and written description of your accident does not match.
• You were not doing your job when you were injured.
• Your accident injuries were not covered under your state’s workers’ compensation laws.
• Your injury is not covered.
• You were injured, but you never received medical care; thus, you do not qualify for benefits.
• A doctor other than your employer’s compensation doctor treated your injuries.
• A pre-existing condition can deny your compensation claim unless you prove that your accident/injury worsened your condition.
• Employer attorneys fight to deny a claim if you aggravated an old injury.
• You lost your job to termination, were laid off, or quit before you filed your claim.
• You refused to give a recorded statement regarding your accident/injury.
• There were no witnesses to your accident and injury. (It makes a big difference when you immediately report your injuries to co-workers and employers. Take pictures of your accident site as soon as you are injured.)
• You were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of your accident and injury.
• You were negligent in causing your accident and injury unless someone else was negligent and caused your injuries.

For the above reasons, you need your attorney immediately following any workplace accident/injury case. We know all the Texas state laws related to workers’ compensation. Give us a call as soon as possible after your accident and injury so we can get to work for you and protect your employee rights.

Law firms have a lot to consider when it comes to getting their names out there. There are many a tactic that may be employed, both new and old, and knowing when and how to use them is a skill in and of itself. One such tactic is for a law firm to purchase a lead. But are leads a good fit for a law firm’s website?

Why should law firms buy leads?

Before we get into the question of the benefit a lead brings to your law firm, the first thing we need to understand is what a lead even constitutes. Basically, a lead is an individual or organization that is interested in your products and/or services, and thus wants to work with you. The actual meaning of a lead is pretty simple, but the pros and cons of working with leads is less so. The trick to leads is the generation itself.

Having a method of lead generation is great for business, but you really have to make sure that you are not accepting such generation willy-nilly. Having more leads is helpful, but not at the expense of accepting low-quality lead generators. Heck, with enough mismanagement, a lead generation can turn out to be a net negative for your law firm. However, there is something to be said about being too strict and exacting with the selection process. After all, you do not want to be so strict that you are taking in basically no leads. You should not take this to mean that you should have no standards, but perhaps consider areas where you can make a compromise with yourself. As long as your leads are proving to be a net gain for your law firm, that is what you should be aiming for.

When you do get a good lead through a marketing initiative, it can make all the difference. One of the best parts of such a marketing effort is that your own company does not have to handle it itself. Thus, you do not have to personally be racking your brain about whether you did things correctly. When all is said and done though, the best time for a law firm to buy leads is when they cannot generate them themselves. For example, let’s say that your law firm generally does a pretty solid job of generating leads itself. People need your services, people are aware of your services, and people are utilizing your services. Perfect! In this scenario, unless you were really trying to make your law firm elevate beyond its current station, buying leads would likely not be to your law firm’s best interests. However, buying leads does help when your law firm is lagging.

A law firm may struggle for a variety of reasons, some of which may be completely out of their control. Buying leads is especially helpful in that kind of scenario, where it feels like the law firm’s owner is up a creek without a paddle. One of the bigger issues when it comes to buying leads is that you do still have to compete to an extent to pull them in. As such, a law firm is not going to be able to get these leads simply by buying them, they actually have to have something under their belt to attract their leads to their law firm. However, for those who do have something to show for themselves, this may prove to be a massive boon. Leads which may have otherwise not even known about the existence of your law firm are suddenly available to you.

Another issue is cost. Much like most things in life, getting these leads is not free, and it is not cheap, either. There is a large demand for buying leads, and as such, those who sell leads are in a position to ask a pretty penny for their services. As a result, you need to make sure that you can afford to budget this in. If you fail to do so and go ahead with it, the leads that you just bought may prove to be more costly than if you had done nothing at all. In this scenario, your next best bet is to try to create leads yourself. Whether you have a skilled team of marketers or decide to work with a third-party one, this can be the best tool for you to get leads.

The best thing you can do for your law firm is to make people aware of the brand. This means that you should have a name that is easy to remember and recognize, such that people will be more inclined to pick you when they are thinking of retaining the services of an attorney. A solid website design helps a lot too, as people who find you through Google are going to be a lot of your leads. However, if your website appears shoddily designed, they may be out before they can even read a word of the services you provide. There are a number of different things that can be used to enhance your law firm, many that you can take advantage of now.