« What If An Injured Worker Does Not Like the Physician Selected by the Employer? |
Main Blog Page
| When Must an Employee Give Notice of a Work Injury? »
Employers sometimes are shocked when they get sued by injured workers. Yet, many of the reasons workers' compensation suits are filed are logical and preventable by employers and insurance carriers. Most times, injured workers have no intention of pursuing litigated claims against their employer. Instead, workers generally indicate that they are driven to pursue legal representation for one of really only a few reasons. To be certain, some employees are simply driven by the desire to obtain financial gain and some are even acting fraudulently.
However, most injured employees only want to be paid what they are entitled and to be taken care of until they are able to return to work. Accordingly, most litigation in the worker's compensation arena is driven by poor employment practices or by poor case handling by an insurance carrier.
To be certain, employers and insurance carriers possess very effective means to ensure that they get sued by an injured worker. Among the 10 best ways to get sued are:
1. Fail to report a work comp injury to the insurance carrier in a timely manner
2. Deny the injured worker necessary medical care (or at least don't offer it promptly)
3. Refuse to pay for medical treatment obtained after a work injury (even if you have authorized the care)
4. Don't worry about, take a personal interest, or even inquire of the employer to see how he/she is doing after a work injury.
5. Provide the injured employee demeaning work and continually harass the employee upon return to work
6. Don't timely report the hours worked on light duty to the insurance carrier, causing the injured worker to have a shortfall in earnings.
7. Refuse to allow the worker to return to work until he/she obtains a full duty release (workers earn less sitting at home than returning to a light duty assignment and often feel the money crunch if not put back to work). This one might just get you a double award and a suit under the Americans with Disabilities Act as well!
8. Upon returning to work, start writing the injured worker up for every insignificant policy violation you can think of, regardless of whether you have done so in the past and regardless of whether you are writing up other employees for similar conduct (employees love to be singled out and discriminated against).
9. Fire or threaten to fire the injured employee immediately upon being advised of the work comp claim (this one gets you the triple or potentially the quadruple whammy because you get teh honor of being sued for worker's compensation benefits, wrongful termination, violations of the ADA, and potentially violations of the Family and Medical Leave Act).
10. Fire the injured worker as soon as you receive a work comp petition (these employers also desire the double whammy of a wrongful termination suit).
If employers implement each of the above ten practices, lawyers on both sides of the table should reap the benefits! (And I am sure that employees and employers alike enjoy paying their attorneys!) Realistically, through proper training, implementation of policy, and simple human compassion, many worker's compensation suits can be avoided, employees can receive what they are entitled to receive, and exposures can be reduced both for the employer and the insurance carrier.
Posted by William H. Grell on January 10, 2008 5:48 AM
|
Permalink
