Experienced Workers' Compensation Lawyer in Minnesota
Injured on the job? Protect Your Rights and Secure Fair Compensation. Based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Understand Your Rights
We get up every day and go to work. In some industries more than others, we put our health at risk to get the job done, for the benefit of ourselves, our families, and our employers. It’s a risk because people do get hurt on the job, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
Everything can change in an instant. Workdays are replaced by doctor’s appointments. Physical pain and apprehension about the future are common. Paychecks are replaced by workers’ compensation benefits. Medical personnel become familiar, while coworkers and managers may become distant.
We all expect that if we get injured at work, the employer will do what it can to help. We expect that the employer will allow for modified duty work. We expect that it will pick up the medical bills, cover wages for time off, and help us find a new job if we can’t make it back.
What if the employer or its insurer doesn’t live up to that responsibility? What are the employer’s responsibilities, exactly? What are the injured worker’s responsibilities?
PROTECT YOUR RIGHTS
Injured workers sometimes call LawSmith PLLC with litigation already at their doorstep, and other times just to get questions answered:
✓ I didn’t report my injury right after it happened, what now?
✓ Can my employer fire me for making a workers’ comp claim?
✓ Can I be asked to do tasks at work that my doctor has told me not to do?
✓ My employer or its insurer said that my injury was not work-related, what now?
✓ Why isn’t the insurer paying my medical bills?
✓ How long will my workers compensation benefits last?
✓ Why does the insurer want me to go to an “independent” medical examination?
Many people have never had a disputed workers’ compensation claim. It’s okay not to have all the answers. LawSmith PLLC is here to help injured workers understand, protect, and assert their rights in the workers’ compensation system.
Assert Your Rights
Other times, injured workers call LawSmith PLLC after a dispute has already arisen. Most commonly, these disputes take one of the following forms:
✓ An employer or insurer denied liability for a workers’ compensation claim;
✓ An insurer is refusing to pay medical expenses related to a workers’ compensation claim;
✓ An insurer has stopped paying workers’ compensation benefits; or
✓ The injured worker would like to settle a workers’ compensation claim.
LawSmith PLLC will collect the evidence needed to prove a workers’ compensation case, and present that evidence to the Department of Labor and Industry, Office of Administrative Hearings, Workers’ Compensation Court of Appeals, or Supreme Court of Minnesota, as needed.
LawSmith PLLC also negotiates the settlement of workers’ compensation cases with insurance carriers.