I have a W/C question for lefthanded. I am an injured worker in the state of Ohio. I have been off work for 8months due to my injury. I have a C6/C7 rupture, multiple lumbar sprain (these dont bother me that much anymore) and lower lumbar discongenic disease. Then neck and discongenic disease has become pretty dibilatating for me. All these have been allowed on my claim and backed up by MRI's and EMGS. Though I need surgery my dr says with me only being 30 it would be in my best interest to not have it.. I have had 2 Epidural pain injection as well as 20 plus physical therapy visits. Today I had a dr apt with a workers comp dr for a Individual Medical Evaluation. Although it was more like a bias medical evaluation, he was very contradicting tried to catch me up in a lie over and over again. I was completely upfront and honest with him has I have been with the 4 other drs who have seen me for my case and who all agree with my diagnosis. When he wakled out of the room he was telling a lady upfront I failed 3 out of 5 test, whatever that means.
Anyway I am curious what happens now. From everything I have read these guys never give the patients a fair review, especially since they are paid by workmens comp. I am also told that whatever this guy says workers comp will go with, even though he has never seen a xray, mri, emg report, they just say his 15 minutes with me trumps everything.
So I am guessing they are going to try to force me into some sort of settlement I am curious what to expect. Prior to my injury I made $54,000 the year prior. My first 3 months off work workers comp paid me the total maximum allowed with was like $860, since they 3 month 72% is up my 66% pay is $755 a week. I am curious what to expect, my dr's have already told me that I will never be able to go back to the job I was doing previous, though I am in school taking online classes now. Can they just stop paying me bc of what a dr that has seen me once says? what type of settlemet could i Possible expect?
Little on how my injury happend. I work for a furniture store, our furniture comes in standing upright on their side arms. I basically had a 450-500 pound sofa that is roughly 7 ft tall get blown over and hit me in my upper back knocked me over fell ontop of me and all the weight hit the upper back again as well as another part hit my lower mid back. Furniture falls here all the time, and I just happend to be walking by at the wrong time.
I am extremely worried now, I have a family, a 18 month old son I can hardly play with because my back is so messed up. I can hardly drive anymore. This dr today at the IME seriously was the rudest person ever. He contradicted everything I said as if he was attempting to get me to mess up so I was lying. I was told going in to be honest and dont exagerate my injuries and that is exactly what I did. He even went as after I told him I was about to have my associates degree he 6 times asked when I would have my bachelor, over and over again. then started asking me why I couldnt just go get a job in the IT Field now. just help, anyone with any idea of what might happen next, or long term what kind of settlement could I expect with the salary information and injuries I listed would really help me out probably help me stress a little less. thanks in advance!

jbcodora . . .

Sounds like you are stuck in a rather average scenario, I am afraid. I have no background or experience in Ohio claims, Ohio comp law, or how your medical care is controlled in Ohio. I hate to say this, but if you have not begun the interview process to find the best comp attorney you can, it might be time to get started.

In my experience I have had young injured workers get the surgery and do well. That said, the surgery is a risk, and not everyone has a good enough outcome to return to their job of injury. Your IME experience, I am afraid, is pretty typical. There was a time when that was not always the case, but tightening budgets have led to the use of "hired guns' to help in claim closure.

As to what to expect, I can not really help you there. I suggest you get as familiar with the comp laws of Ohio as you possibly can and get a good attorney. Why, if you have an attorney, you ask, should you know a little about the law? So you can monitor your attorney! A good one will appreciate that you have tried to educate yourself, but a poor comp attorney will be like a full-time job for you. And you will have a better understanding of how w/c coverage works. Most injured worker frustrations come from a lack of understanding on what comp is . . . and isn't.

Ohio site for injured workers: http://www.ohiobwc.com/

First I am not a lawyer and you should call one yesterday!!!!! There are time limits for filing. Most every state in the union REQUIRES employers to provide a safe work place. Second I would be willing to bet you are not the first to get hurt this way!! If a company has had accidents similar to this and has not done anything to protect their employees it is grounds for negligence. This can have a large impact on how much compensation you may get. Third your employer can not fire you for protecting yourself with a lawyer!!! Fourth the company you worked for has insurance for this and they are working VERY HARD to pay you as little as possible. In todays economy it is considered GOOD BUSINESS. Don't confuse workers comp. with tort law. Workers comp is required by any one hurt at work for any company that pays into it. Tort law has two edges. Yes people take advantage of it, that is human nature. Tort law is the only weapon of defense left to an employee, most are underpaid, that are trying to recoup losses. Think pay, pain, suffering... all those things you can not do and will never get a chance to do. How else can you manage to provide for your family after your injury. Call a lawyer now and dont look for a quick payout...HUGE mistake. The lawyer I am working with took my case on contingency. I am in the same boat as you so to speak. Lastly ask yourself do you really want to continue working for this company. Next time, and unless they change there will be a next time, will you or whoever be lucky enough to walk away? Get a lawyer, you desperatly need one to be fighting for you. They can really help. If you are unsure go to the local library if it has internet access and look some up. Don't be impressed by flash and glitz. Look for some one who has done workers comp. for some time and really talks to you.

Thanks for the feed back you guys! I do have an attorney btw. Today i recieved notification from workmens comp and as I figured the dr says I have reached my Maximum medical Improvement. But he claims he looked at all my xrays, MRI emg's and all that, but not only did I not take any with me, my dr did not send them over, the dr also told me during the check up he did not have any.
I called my workmens comp lady and she told me that I have to go to another hearing infront of the Industrial Commision of ohio and they will determine if I should continue to recieve temporary total disability pay. She also said she does not personally think I have reached my MMI but she has to file this bc of guidelines. I had a hearing with the industrial commision in june were they approved the Lumbar Discongenic Disease onto my claim.

So now I am just curious, if they cut off my Temp total disability what happens. I know that I could still go back to work if my employer will work with in my restrictions which is very very very limited. But I am curious how do I know if I am eligable for working wage loss? when I originally hurt my back I went from bringing home $1100 a week to bring home 320 so I eventually got working wage loss up until the time my dr took me off work. So I am hoping that means I am eligable for it still, and I hope that it does not make me eneligable to recieve it again. Also I know there is a thing called Non-working wage loss, so if they take my temporary total away and my employer will not allow me to go back to work does this mean they will still pay me through non working wage loss?
I know a settlement is something that will eventually happen, and at this point I almost just want to do it. The thing holding me back is my child. When this accident happend my son was 4 months old, now he is 19 months old. It is very sad what limitation this injury has caused me with bonding with my child. I cannot play with my kid like most fathers do, I cannot hold him for more than a minute or two at a time. Things like taking my kid to the zoo or the park is another thing I do rarely because when I have done these things I have problems doing anytihng for a few days.
I am just curious if anyone knows what kind of settlement I could possible expect? I know that I have been told I will probably need 2-3 epidurals a year in two different locations, ontop of dr appointments every 6 weeks due to federal laws on opiate perscriptions. Of course perscriptioins as well. I just dont know if that is all they put into these settlements, or if they look at your finances. Like I said before I made between $50,000- and $62,000 in the 2 years prior to my injury.
This system is just criminal, the fact that they pay these hired gun dr's and expect people to jsut take the determination is criminal!! It is criminal I didnt do anything wrong, my employers neglagence put me here. And now after BWC in ohio's coin gate disaster, they are trying to increase their margins but what they are doing is destroying lives in the process.

Hi jb,
I am new here so I'm not sure how long it will take for my post to show up.
I look forward to meeting you!
I had a wc case that was open for 10 years.
I hope that I can offer some insights.
Sincerely,
Happiedasiy

Hey welcome to the site

Yeah Im frantically trying to find advice from people who know more about the system. I do have an attorney and he is suppose to be a good one in the area, but talking to him he dont really give me anyting to go on. Since the Individual Medical Examiner basically said I am at my Maximum Medical Improvement Workers comp is requesting that my temporary total disability be ended, which via the 3 specialist and dr's I see that is false. Though the injury happend 18 months ago, it took 8 months to get my neck injuries added to my claim, and I have gotten some treatment for my c6/c7 displacment. I have had therapy which was unsuccesful, all they did was traction therapy which inflammed the problems worse, then I had 2 epidural injections, which the first didnt take, and the second workedd fro around 2 moths. But it didnt completely take the pain away actually it didnt take any pain away it just gave me a little more mobility in my neck, but that is gone now. Then about 2 months ago after having to get denied and then final have a hearing infront of the ohio industrial comminsion officer, they approved and allowed an additional allowance on my claim, it is for my lower back and it is lumbar discongenic disease. My lower back is what is dibilitating! we have a 18 month old son who was 3 months old when the injury happend and this really restricts me being able to play with my son. On top of those 2 allowances I also have another 8 on my claim from lumbar injuries and rotator injuries but most of which are minor though they still hurt. Now I know a guy who had a lumbar strain on a BWC claim and he got like 18,000 in a settlement just for that 1 allowance, I have 6 of those plus the 2 major injuries. Iam told surgery is a possability but at the same time my dr says since i am only 30 the risk of nerve damage may not be worth having the surgery. So anyway workers comp wants to stop paying me but there is still no improvemnet on my injuries bc WC keeps denying treatment. The lumbar discongenic disease that was just allowed a few months back, my dr requested a couple month worth of physical therapy on it and they denied it stating that I had already recieved treatment for this injury, but the last physical therapy I did was last november, so that is 7 months prior to the discongenic disease being added to my claim. Any prior to my injury I was making between $52,000 and $56,000 a year. My first 3 months of temporary total disability pay at 72% should of been $1068 a week but in the state of Ohio the max they will pay was $816 a week so that is what I made. After my first 3 months it lowered to 66.6% of your previous years salary and now I have been getting pair $655 a week, which I have been arguing is not correct since that only translate into $45,552 and I had made $53,600 the 56 weeks prior to my injry, but anyway. I am trying to find someone who can tell me what I can expect if I file for a settlement, whether it is pain and suffering or whatever. When I talked to my WC case worker after they said they wanted to stop paying me she told me I should look into Welfare, which if that is what I will ahve to resort to is the biggest crime ever. To go from being able to comfortable support your family, and live a very good life, to being injured at no fault to myslef 100% my employers fault and now I may have to loose my home and live in low income housing. It is an absolute crime that I they are trying help increase their margins by cutting me out and destroying my life! Anyway anyone who can shed any light on what kind of money I could possible expect from a settlement would help me out greatly. The stress this is causing me and my fiance is sickening, we dont know if we need to let our cars get repod and loose our home or if we will actually be able to get a settlement that will keep us afloat for the time being. BTW I am in school getting an IT degree, I still have a year and a half until I will obtain my degree but since I will never be able to do physical labor again I went back to school. PLEASE SOMEONE help!

I was injured on the job on 2-26-12. My shoulder was seriously hurt and required surgery. I had multiple x-rays and 2 MRI. The Dr. determined that my Labrium was torn in 6 spots and Rotator Cuff in 3. He repaired my Cuff and had to use 6 anchors to reattach my Labrium. I've been going to Pt 2-3 times per week since May 12th. My range of motion is limmited at best. My Dr. said that I probably wouldn't be in the same career as it would be to much risk for injuring my shoulder again. I retained a lawyer to help me in the case but I still have a few questions. I'm a diesel mechanic and work on semi trucks and trailers. I meet again with the Dr. on 9-19 for my MMI rating. I live in Fl. and was wondering what to expect as far as settlement etc...
Thanks.

Laws for the states vary. But I had read that if you have been injured on the job then at settlement ask for the next level up. I.E. lost a finger ask for hand, lost a hand ask for arm. In your case that may mean your back which could well be total disability. The reason for doing so is if you reinjure that arm most states do not allow you to seek compensation twice for one injury. That includes injury in another state.

Yeah it really sucks. If you need more time and the MMI is days away ask for a delay and speak with your lawyer. If the lawyer is not co-operative tell him/her you will not sign anything you do not understand and explain your resevations. I recommend you take someone you trust with you to every dr and lawyer visit. Make them explain to your understanding it is your right as a patient and the lawyer is getting paid to do it. My wife goes with me as my memory is not as good as it used to be.

I see no one has been able to give you the response I imagine you are hoping for. If your lawyer can not give you any kind of answer to your question, it is highly unlikely anyone here will be able to. No two cases are alike, so even if you found someone from your state, with your exact injuries, and your wage history, it isn't very probable that your outcomes would match anyway.

Assessing your situation realistically, you might want to really read up and understand what your state's comp laws allow. This might involve reading some legal cases of claims that went to trial. Even then, no two cases are alike. Your best bet is to be considering that you may need to adapt your skills to fit your physical limitations to see if there are other means to make a living. Push come to shove, most comp statutes do not promise you work in the same field, at the same salary level, or with the same employer. Most are satisfied if you can earn a living. I know how harsh that is, but especially in today's economy, it is the reality of the situation. No matter how large your settlement is, it will not compensate you fully for lost income and lost profession. It will only compensate to the level the legislature could reasonably provide for the system. If your settlement figure will take into account your salary level at the time of injury, count yourself as lucky: some states used to, and may still, have set dollar amounts, whether you flipped burgers or designed skyscrapers or built huge agricultural equipment.

This is one reason it is wise to take your employer up on any offers of group long term disability insurance policy: even if you must pay a little more for supplemental coverage which pays at a higher rate, you have more protection if you lose your ability to work.

I recommend you continue to pursue your attorney for answers to your questions. Any answers you get here will just be speculation and might set you up to either expect more than you are going to get, or cause you to neglect to turn to the one person who might be able to come as close as possible to estimating your situation correctly.

If you expect to be totally disabled for a few more years, you may want to consider applying for SSDI. If you can complete a degree and return to the workforce--that's great. If you apply and are turned down, but follow through with the process, you can request a partially favorable decision, so that you receive SSDI in arrears for the period you were unable to work.