Denied Workers Comp Claims

Here's a common scenario. You've been hurt at work. Perhaps you fell from a ladder at the job site or you're a CNA who has hurt your back trying to move an in-home patient. You may not have sought medical care right away, thinking you could “walk it off”. When you don't get better, you notify your employer who may or may not inform the workers compensation insurer. You either hear nothing or get a denial. You try to use your own medical insurance for treatment, but it won’t pay your doctors because it’s a work injury. You know you need a lawyer but are afraid of the cost.

There are many reasons why the employer or insurer will deny a claim. They’ll say you didn't really get hurt at work. They’ll deny it ever happened because there are no witnesses; They’ll point out that you already had a pre-existing condition. They’ll say that it can’t be that bad because you didn’t go to see the doctor right away. They’ll even say that even if the event happened at work, like a heart attack, it has nothing to do with work. Sometimes you find out that your employer didn’t even have workers comp insurance. Finally, they might say that you’re an independent contractor, not an employee.

The attorneys at Marcotte Law Firm have handled thousands of cases and seen all the excuses. Our Workers Compensation Lawyers have successfully secured benefits for our clients in the face of every excuse mentioned above and hundreds more.

The biggest enemy facing the denied employee is time. Part of the reason is that supportive evidence may disappear. Surveillance videos get overwritten, and witnesses forget details. However, the more important issue is that you don't have money to pay your bills.

Sometimes an insurance company will deny your claim simply because your employer has not given the insurer necessary information. The insurance company is required to either deny or accept a claim within a short window of time, and may issue a denial in order to meet its deadline. In other words, the insurance company denies your claim before it even knows what happened.

A knowledgeable Lowell Workers Compensation attorney can get the info to the insurance company and get the weekly payments flowing. At a minimum, the workers compensation lawyer can file a claim with the Department of Industrial Accidents and shorten the time when a judge can make decisions on disputed claims.

Again, at Marcotte Law Firm, our Lowell Workers Compensation Attorneys have dealt with all of this. Even if your employer broke the law that requires workers compensation coverage, or paid you under the table and tries to claim you weren't an “employee” but your own independent entity, you have rights that a good attorney can achieve for you.

No. Attorneys fees for workers compensation cases are highly regulated. You will never be required to pay us out of your own pocket. Either the insurer is required to pay our fee if your Workers compensation attorney prevails on a disputed claim, or there can be a prescribed percentage of benefits that your lawyer can take from a “lump sum” settlement of claim when settlement is a better alternative to forcing the case to a judicial decision. But that is a topic all its own.

If your Workers Compensation Claim was denied, there’s no reason to wait. Your best decision will be to call the Workers Compensation Lawyers at Marcotte Law Firm for a free consultation. It is risk free.