Posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2021 at 10:51 am
Virginia and North Carolina Workers Compensation Attorney Joe Miller here breaks down, in simple, easy-to-understand terms, the basics of Medicare Set-Asides (MSA’s)–What is it and why do you need one in your workers comp settlement? You just received some kind of authorization for a company you have never heard of that you are being asked to sign. The Authorization gives this company the authority to obtain all of your medical records and submit them to something called CMS. What the heck is going on? Joe Miller explains all in this comprehensive explainer video on MSA’s.
Posted on Wednesday, February 3rd, 2021 at 3:55 pm
Virginia and North Carolina Workers Compensation Attorney Joe Miller explains why it is so critical to your case to obtain a current work note or disability slip after each and every appointment with your primary, authorized treating physician. Failure to present valid work notes at your hearing could mean you will be unable to prove you are entitled to weekly checks.
Posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2020 at 1:32 pm
We’ve written before about some of the types of accidents workers have when the weather gets cold – Worker’s Compensation and Winter Safety | Joe Miller Law, Ltd. (joemillerinjurylaw.com). Some of the major types of cold-weather accidents and injuries for workers include. Probably the most common type of injury is a slip and fall due to ice, melting water, and slippery surfaces. Cold weather cause potholes and pavement cracks which can also make falls likely.
Common cold weather injuries include frostbite, hypothermia, and back injuries. People who work outside such as construction workers, agricultural workers, and roadway maintenance crews are most at risk of suffering from the cold.
Unfortunately, the notion of a worker’s compensation claim for injury such as frostbite or hypothermia is not as easy as a normal type of “accident” such as a slip or fall. This is because usually, frostbite and injuries like it occur over a span of time, sometimes days, and not in a particular moment. Generally, with very few exceptions, workers compensation law in both Virginia and North Carolina do not permit recovery for repetitive trauma injuries. In other words, if you cannot pin down your injury to a very specific period of time as well as conditions and assignments, you will have no case.
A review of the case law tends to indicate that in, for instance, a frostbite situation, if the frostbite is brought on over several days or months in the cold weather, it may be difficult to bring a workers’ compensation claim for an injury by accident. If, however, the frostbite occurs as a result of a very limited, say, four or five hour uninterrupted exposure to extreme cold due to a set of tasks that the injured worker is required to perform, that may satisfy the requirement that the injury occur during a specific, identifiable period of time. Of course, this must be backed up with a qualified physician’s opinion.
All that being said, there may be another option that is revealed by a review of the case law. Frostbite, hypothermia and other such cold-induced conditions could also be considered to be an occupational disease. To bring such a case, one would have to show, through clear and convincing evidence, that the unique conditions of work brought about the injury. Again, one needs to be prepared with a very clear physicians’ opinion that the specific injuries were a result of exposure to extreme cold at work.
Many cold weather injuries are preventable with proper planning, training, and safety protocols. Some of these common strategies include:
Workers have two priorities if a cold-weather injury such as frostbite or hypothermia is suspected: The first is to get immediate help. If the employer has in-house health care, they can help there. Otherwise, it’s advisable to call 911 or contact your emergency room. Workers may be in shock. The worker may not be aware of the extent of their injuries. Emergency medical personnel should be able to advise the worker and a supervisor whether the worker can be moved safely to the hospital or if emergency on-site care is needed.
The second priority is that workers who are physically able to need to notify their employer (usually a supervisor or manager) that they can’t work anymore due to the cold. If you can’t tell your employer immediately, you should inform your employer as soon as possible after you receive emergency medical treatment.
As mentioned above, unless one suffered an accident such as slipping on ice, workers who suffer injuries due to cold weather conditions such as frostbite or hypothermia may find it more difficult to prove their claim. If they cannot prove that the frostbite or hypothermia was a result of a very defined and specific period of time of no more than a few hours of exposure to extreme cold, the only other option would be to attempt to prove their case through the means of occupational disease, which is more difficult.
Assuming the injured worker could prove his or her claim, the worker would have the right to file for workers’ compensation. Many injuries can take weeks or months to heal. During the time period where the worker is unable to work, the worker is entitled to:
Workers and employers should also advise and prepare their workers for cold weather by:
Some ways to keep warm (and things to avoid) include:
Many workers such as truck workers and delivery workers are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if they are injured as a result of an accident while making deliveries. Salespeople and other workers may be entitled to work injury benefits too – if they have a vehicle accident AND if the accident occurs during the scope of their employment. With some exceptions, commuting back and forth to work is not considered within the scope of employment.
A few common safety tips for cold weather driving include:
According to Business Insurance:
“Construction and utility, postal carriers, delivery personnel and employees in other similar positions may be negatively affected by improper protective clothing and training in the bitter cold, which could lead to hypothermia and/or frostbite, noted Ms. Roth.”
Employers who fail to take necessary precautions may be subject to OSHA violations.
North Carolina and Virginia workers’ compensation lawyer Joe Miller Esq. understands the many reasons why workplace accidents occur. It is not necessary to prove your employer was at fault in order to receive workers’ compensation benefits. The focus on considering safety measures in cold weather or any weather is to try to avoid the accident from happening. For help with any work injury claim, contact a seasoned North Carolina and Virginia workers’ compensation attorney. You can reach attorney Joe Miller, Esq., at 888-667-8295. or fill out my online contact form to schedule an appointment. You can use complete our New Electronic Case Review. It’s a new way we’re offering workers to contact us remotely, particularly if they are awake after normal business hours.
Posted on Friday, October 30th, 2020 at 8:52 am
Carpal tunnel syndrome is painful and is likely to cause workers to lose time from their job. If your median nerve isn’t working you’ll have a lot of complications such as:
According to the Mayo Clinic, your physician will conduct a series of tests and questions to determine if you have carpal tunnel syndrome. These tests and questions include:
Imaging tests may also eliminate other problems such as diabetes.
It’s best to start treatments of carpal tunnel syndrome as quickly as possible. Early self-help treatments include:
In milder cases, where your condition is less than 10 months old, splinting may help. If, however, your hands feel numb, you should treat with a doctor as soon as possible. As a general rule, you should see a doctor, even if you have a mild case, so he/she can diagnose the condition and recommend initial therapy.
Splinting the wrist helps keep the wrist still while you sleep. Patients use the wrist splint at night though it can help with daytime aches and pains.
Some stretching exercises may help. Some patients seek chiropractic care and/or acupuncture
Some nonsurgical therapy treatments include:
The Mayo Clinic indicates that there are two types of carpal tunnel syndrome surgery:
There are risks to surgery that your surgeon should explain to you before any operation. These risks include:
The healing process, after surgery usually takes a few months. During this time, “the ligament tissues gradually grow back together while allowing more room for the nerve.” Employees, who are entitled workers’ compensation, should receive temporary disability during the healing process. The employer’s insurance carrier should pay for the surgery.
In some cases, your symptoms may not completely disappear after surgery.
Often, employees can show that they developed carpal tunnel syndrome due to their work. Still, that doesn’t mean you’re automatically qualified for workers’ compensation in either North Carolina or Virginia. Generally, injuries must either be due to a workplace accident or an occupational illness or disease.
In Virginia, Carpal Tunnel Syndrome is specifically not recognized as a statutory occupational disease the same way as something like asbestosis; however, it is probably the most commonly claimed “ordinary disease of life” that injured workers claim is due to have occurred due to exposure to specific work conditions.
It is definitely not a given that a claim for carpal tunnel will be found compensable. In Virginia, any “ordinary disease of life” much meet the higher standard of “clear and convincing” evidence. This means that there must be very clear proof that the unique work conditions are such that they have caused the CTS, and also that the CTS is not due to factors outside of work. It must be “characteristic of the employment and was caused by conditions peculiar to such employment.”
Employers will typically argue that your carpal tunnel syndrome is due to other conditions – such as a second job or activities you do at home. They’ll also argue that you had a pre-existing carpal tunnel condition caused by other activities or conditions that pre-dated your work history with the employer.
North Carolina is similar in its proof requirements. CTS would fall under the “catch all” occupational disease claim found at N.C.G.S. 97-53(13) which does generally allow a carpal tunnel syndrome claim to be filed if it is due to a repetitive stress injury – if it can be shown that the CTS is proven “to be due to causes and conditions which are characteristic of and peculiar to a particular trade, occupation or employment, but excluding all ordinary diseases of life to which the general public is equally exposed outside of the employment.”
If you are able to prove your claim, while you’re out of work due to the CTS, you should be entitled to temporary disability benefits at 2/3rds of your average weekly wage and of course coverage for any and all treatment related to your CTS. If your hand doesn’t completely recover, and you end up with some kind of permanent impairment, you may be entitled to permanent partial disability (PPD) benefits.
North Carolina and Virginia workers’ compensation lawyer Joe Miller Esq has helped thousands of injured workers obtain just recoveries. He understands the unique coverage and treatment issues involved with carpal tunnel syndrome claims. To talk with a seasoned work injury lawyer, call North Carolina and Virginia attorney Joe Miller, Esq., at 888-667-8295. or use my online contact form or our new online case evaluation form to find out if you may have a claim.
Posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2020 at 8:50 am
Carpal tunnel syndrome is an injury due to stress. It happens when pressure on the median nerve and tendons that travel through the carpal tunnel (a passage in your arm). You feel the injury as you flex your fingers. The carpal tunnel can cause pain, numbness and tingling, even with minor swelling.
According to the Mayo Clinic, symptoms include:
The feeling may extend from your wrist up your arm. The symptoms can appear while you’re driving or just reading a publication. They may cause you to wake from your sleep. Many people try to shake out the feelings. The numbness feeling may last a long time.
Pressure on the median nerve causes carpal tunnel syndrome. The median nerve “provides sensation to the palm side of your thumb and fingers, except the little finger. It also provides nerve signals to move the muscles around the base of your thumb (motor function).”
Carpal tunnel syndrome can be due to anything that irritates or squeezes the median nerve. A fractured wrist can also cause the carpal tunnel to narrow. Rheumatoid arthritis is another cause of carpal tunnel syndrome. Often, there is no one singular cause. A combination of factors may cause he disorder.
Many factors increase the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome though they may not cause the disorder. These risk factors include:
Of particular note, is that workplace conditions are a known risk factor. Examples include:
“Several studies have evaluated whether there is an association between computer use and carpal tunnel syndrome. Some evidence suggests that it is mouse use, and not the use of a keyboard, that may be the problem. However, there has not been enough quality and consistent evidence to support extensive computer use as a risk factor for carpal tunnel syndrome, although it may cause a different form of hand pain.”
Some of the ways to reduce stress on your wrists and hands include:
You should also avoid working where it’s cold. If you can’t control the cold/heat, try using fingerless gloves. They may help.
Some that we’ve mentioned include computer work or keyboard work, assembly line work, and using a cash register. Other risky jobs include:
North Carolina and Virginia workers’ compensation lawyer Joe Miller Esq. has helped thousands of injured workers obtain their full work injury benefits. He’ll fight to show your carpal tunnel syndrome is compensable under state workers’ compensation laws. He’ll work to show how much medical care and time off you need.To speak with an experienced work injury attorney, call North Carolina and Virginia lawyer Joe Miller, Esq., at 888-667-8295. or fill out my online contact form to make an appointment or feel free to utilize our new online case evaluation form.
Posted on Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020 at 9:53 am
Workers have the right to file for workers’ compensation if they are an employee, if they are hurt on the job, and if the injuries they suffer stop them from working. Workers may also be entitled to work injury benefits if they suffer an occupational illness due to their job. There is no requirement to prove the employer was at fault. The claims process is normally easier than in a personal injury case. Still, there are many mistakes employees can make that can hurt their case. Just one key mistake can affect your entire claim or your ability to get all the compensation you deserve. (more…)
Posted on Friday, July 17th, 2020 at 4:14 pm
Workers Compensation Lawyer Joe Miller here explains the role of the Nurse Case Manager, particularly in Virginia. According to the law, they are supposed to help facilitate your treatment with your doctors. In reality, at least in Virginia, the Nurse Case Managers tend to act as proxies for the workers compensation insurance companies, and their primary interests are therefore aligned with them–which means–get you back to work even before you are ready, get you to the insurance-friendly doctors that they want you to see. and to the facilities that will skew your case in the insurance company’s favor.
Posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2020 at 11:10 am
Clearly many folks are concerned right now about the effect on their weekly compensation checks of any potential layoff of themselves and their fellow employees at work or company closures due to the severe economic downturn and mandatory closures related to the Coronavirus.
This is a very important question right now and also this particular question regarding layoffs happens to be an evolving and very active area of VA Workers Comp law.
The short answer is if you are currently under an ongoing, finalized Award for benefits, meaning an Award for weekly checks for either Temporary Total or Temporary Partial Disability, then NO, you will not lose your benefits; however, if you are NOT under an Award yet and your position is permanently eliminated or the layoffs are clearly permanent with no chance of re-hiring, then you will likely have a very difficult time of trying to obtain comp check benefits from the date of such layoff forward. You may only be able to claim benefits up until the date of the layoff. It’s not impossible to prove ongoing benefits in a permanent layoff situation, but you will be required to rise to a very high level of proof to show that your inability to obtain a job is due to your disability and not just to your job being eliminated permanently.
That being said, if the layoff is only temporary—as many will likely be in our current situation—then if you are not under an Award and on light duty, you would still be able to claim benefits; however, you would need to engage in active marketing of your residual capacity to work in order to prove your inability to find a job. And of course, you will likely end up at a Workers Comp Commission Hearing to prove you engaged in adequate marketing.
Of course, those held out of work 100% by their doctors due to their work injuries and have the physician’s work notes to prove it would not need to prove marketing.
If this all seems confusing, I encourage you to first see my video on the importance of being under an Open or Ongoing Award for benefits in Virginia. It’s important to understand what an Award accomplishes for you in Virginia.
So why is someone under an ongoing or Open Award in a better position compared to someone who is not in a layoff situation?
It’s because when you’re under an ongoing Award, that Award is a proclamation or Order by the Virginia Workers Compensation Commission that you are entitled to the weekly benefits stated in that Order on an ongoing basis, until proven otherwise by the defense. In other words, you have met your burden and you have won your case. Many times, the Award occurs due to an Award agreement, but the result is the same—once that Award has been entered by the Commission and the 30 day appeal period has passed, the Order is Final and you have won.
When you have an ongoing or Open Award for weekly benefits, it becomes the defense’s burden to prove you’ve been returned to full duty and that you are capable of performing your pre-injury work if they want to get out of paying you those weekly benefits. There are a few other ways for them to stop the Award, such as failure to comply with medical treatment or vocational rehabilitation, but they’re not relevant to our discussion right now.
If the defense cannot prove you are capable of a return to full duty, then you are going to remain under your ongoing Award and they still have to pay you your ongoing, weekly benefits even during the layoff and even if the layoff is permanent.
Now what about folks who are not under an Award yet, but are trying to prove one?
The case law is clear that for folks who are not yet under an Award, the difficulty of proving you are entitled to benefits really depends on whether the layoff is temporary or permanent.
This is because an injured worker who is not yet under an Award has no Order from the Commission regarding anything. Nothing has yet been proven, so the burden of proof remains on the injured worker to show he or she is entitled to benefits.
In a temporary layoff situation, if you are on light duty, assuming your employer does not accept you back at light duty status, so long as you are able to prove sufficient marketing of your residual capacity to work (i.e. looking for work elsewhere within your physical restrictions) during the temporary layoff, you should be able to prove you’re entitled to benefits. Of course, you will likely have to go to Hearing to prove that.
Again, if you are in a temporary layoff, and your authorized treating physician has you out 100% due to your injuries, then since you currently have no residual capacity to work per your doctor, you do not have to market or look for work. You would only need to prove your total incapacity with your doctor’s work notes and office notes.
Unfortunately, for those of you whose positions are eliminated and are fully and permanently laid off along with your coworkers, if you are on light duty and not yet under an Award, you will unfortunately find it much more difficult to be able to claim ongoing weekly workers comp benefits. The case law in such circumstance requires a higher level of proof to show that your economic loss is due to your injury and not the elimination of your job.
The Commissioners and Judges have reasoned in the case law that since you don’t yet have an Award, and your job has been eliminated, the burden is on you to prove economic loss due to your work injuries. And since the burden is on you for proof and since the reason you don’t have a job is because your job was permanently eliminated, then you need to prove your economic loss is actually related to your work injuries and not just the fact that your job does not exist any longer. In such cases, just doing the marketing/looking for light duty work as usual is probably not enough. There needs to be proof that not only can you not find a job, but the reason you cannot find a job is because of your work restrictions as set forth by your treating doctor. If you don’t have such proof, then the Commission will find that the loss is not related to your work injury. They will find that it is related to the fact that your job no longer exists.
Such proof may be through the hiring of an expert such as a vocational rehabilitation expert, and/or through some kind of testimony or other evidence from one or more of the potential employers where you applied that you could not be hired because your work restrictions could not be accommodated.
We think that the decision by the Court of Appeals back in 2016 which raised the standard of proof for permanently laid off employees was wrong and a harsh result, and in fact there were strong dissents by Judges on the case, but unfortunately those Judges were outvoted and that is the law in Virginia.
The only good news is that in many of the Full Commission decisions that have followed this 2016 Court of Appeals Case, the Commission has gone to great lengths to say it does not apply to the situation at hand. Clearly, the Full Commission also feels the Court of Appeals went too far and takes every opportunity to try to limit the harsh effects of that decision.
Also, just to be 100% clear, it is very important to distinguish between an Open or Ongoing Award and a Closed Award. A Closed Award is for some past period of weekly payments that has now ended because you have returned to work. Although such an Award contains a lifetime medical benefit and is also evidence that your claim is compensable (meaning there is no longer a defense that you did not have a legitimate, on-the-job injury) in terms of attempting to get your checks started again because you have been laid off, it’s almost like have no Award at all. In other words, if you’re on light duty, you would have to prove it’s a temporary layoff and you would have to prove marketing just like the folks with no Award at all. And just like those folks, you would not be able to prove any entitlement to ongoing checks if your layoff became permanent.
We hope this article has been helpful.
From all of us here at Joe Miller Law/The Work Injury Center, please stay safe, please follow the CDC COVID-19 Guidelines for prevention, and God Willing we will all get through this safely together.
Attorney Joe Miller has been representing injured workers in Virginia and North Carolina for over 32 years. If you have any questions about a worker’s compensation injury incurred by you or a loved one, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at 888-694-1671 or fill out our online contact form
Please do not wait to contact us, as there are time deadlines for filing your claim. If you fail to meet those deadlines, your right to benefits will be forever lost.
Posted on Saturday, March 21st, 2020 at 2:18 pm
The JLARC’s review of Virginia’s workers’ compensation laws focused on a variety of issues including the relationship between firefighting and 10 different types of cancer to determine what presumptions should apply. They study was performed by epidemiologists at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health.
We discussed some of these issues in a previous article. The general findings of the study were as follows:
83 studies on cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, and PTSD among firefighters and police officers were analyzed and evaluated for quality and bias.
The epidemiologists made the following findings regarding the validity of Virginia’s current and proposed cancer presumptions:
Johns Hopkins University epidemiologists determined that the best available evidence provides some support for most of Virginia’s current and proposed cancer presumptions.
The study found that the firefighters had an increased risk of the following types of cancer:
The Johns Hopkins study did not have enough evidence on the following cancer types:
No research was done on ovarian cancer. This is interesting, since pancreatic cancer and breast cancer are specifically listed in VA Code 65.2-402 ( C ) among those cancers to be presumed to be an occupational disease. As mentioned in a previous article on this subject, the mention of pancreatic cancer is inherently contradictory since it is really impossible to know what caused any pancreatic cancer based on our current state of scientific knowledge.
The JLARC report, based on the John Hopkins study, recommended that worker’s compensation laws in Virginia create presumptions for the following cancer types:
The reports added that colon cancer could be added to the list though the evidence for adding it wasn’t as strong as the other two cancer types.
Current cancer presumptions which should be maintained or could be subject to a sunset provision depended on the following:
Enactment of Virginia House bill 1804 (which adds several cancer presumptions) for firefighter should result in just about six new compensable workers’ compensation claims yearly – though the five year total is expected to be high.
“Some additional liability would be created for firefighters no longer working with an employer and still within statute of limitations.”
The JLARC also found that the “requirements to establish cancer presumptions for firefighters are unreasonably burdensome and appear counter to the purpose of the presumption.” This is the same comment I had made in my previous article on this subject.
Most disputed claims by firefighters for Virginia workers’ compensation benefits – between 2019 to 2018 – found that the firefighter would not be entitled to benefits – in large part because of the failure to prove exposure to the right substance.
Of the 20 firefighter/cancer cases heard during that timeframe:
The “presumption covers firefighters who have had “contact with toxic substance encountered in line of duty.” A big part of the reason for these denials was that firefighters were required to “prove exposure to specific carcinogen suspected to cause their particular type of cancer.” “Of 16 cases heard by VWC in which firefighters did not meet all requirements, the firefighter did not meet the toxic exposure requirement in seven.”
The Johns Hopkins scientists found that:
The study found that it would be sufficient if firefighters were required to show exposure to hazardous conditions that, in turn, exposed them to carcinogens.
Another finding by the JLARC study was that Virginia’s requirement for 12 years of continuous service was not supported by scientific evidence (studies have shown that less service time could cause cancer) and was the highest in the country (the next highest was 20 years). In fact, there is case law that says that assuming there is sufficient proof that a firefighter has a type of cancer caused by exposure to known cancer-causing toxins that match up to that cancer, he or she need only prove ONE SINGLE EXPOSURE to a fire to prove there was sufficient exposure. In that context, the 12 continuous years of service makes little sense.
Virginia workers’ compensation lawyer Joe Miller Esq. has been fighting aggressively for injured workers and workers who suffer occupational illnesses – for more than 31 years. He understands how dangerous firefighting, policing work, and other types of first response work are. For help with any illness claim based on your work, please phone Joe Miller, Esq., at 888-694-1671 or use my online contact form to speak with a strong advocate.
Posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2020 at 2:24 pm
Virginia and North Carolina Workers Compensation Attorney Joe Miller here explains why with some possible exceptions, it is unlikely that you would be able to pursue a compensable claim based on your contraction of the COVID-19 or Coronavirus at work. The possible exception might be someone whose sole job is to treat patients who are known to be infected with the virus, or test people for infection with the Coronavirus. Even then, it would be challenging.