The Claimant was working for his employer undoing an expansion tank when he sustained injuries to his lumbar spine which led to chronic lower back and leg pain and surgical intervention to address his medical maladies. Although the matter was hotly contested Kocian Law Group resolved the matter for $558,828.00.
Contested workers’ compensation claim for back fusion surgery. The injured worker sustained a back injury in 1997. Thereafter, the injured worker sustained two subsequent injuries to his back at different times for different employers. The insurer contested that the need for fusion surgery was due to the 1997 injury. The Commissioner ordered the fusion surgery and the matter was later settled for $145,000 dollars.
Contested workers’ compensation heart disability case. The injured worker retired, and 10 years later developed a heart condition leading to a heart attack and 40 percent disability of the heart. The insurance company claimed that the heart attack was not related to the original claim. The Commissioner awarded $135,000 dollars in heart disability payments and sanctioned the employer, awarding $24,000 dollars in attorneys’ fees for an unreasonable contest of the claim.
Workers’ compensation claim where the employer alleged that our client’s workplace injury did not actually occur and produced two witnesses who testified that our client’s injury did not occur despite the fact that our client testified during the formal hearing that those two witnesses had actually observed the injury take place. Based on the persuasive and professional presentation of the claim by Kocian Law Group attorneys the Commissioner found our client credible and found the claim to be a compensable workers’ compensation claim.
The Claimant was injured on the job but failed to file a written accident report in accordance with his employer’s policy. The employer respondents argued that his actions led inexorably to the conclusion that the trier should have authorized neither his treatment nor the period of total disability that, according to the doctor, immediately followed his injury. The doctor consulted was not a member physician in the employer’s medical care plan. The respondents maintained that the Claimant was required to accept responsibility for seeking treatment outside the plan. Kocian Law Group lawyers countered that the respondents’ internal injury-reporting protocol cannot be absolute given the employer’s statutory obligation to provide competent medical care as soon as it has knowledge of an injury. This significant workers’ compensation decision created important legal precedent that an employer cannot insist that a Claimant seek treatment only from doctors within its own medical care plan in the event the case is later determined to be compensable.
