If you have been injured on the job, you have a right to receive workers’ compensation benefits, including payment of your medical expenses, a portion of your average weekly wages, medical mileage, time off of work, and potentially a loss of your ability to earn wages going forward. Unfortunately, many injured workers are not treated fairly by their employers or their workers’ compensation insurance companies. They may be left too injured to work and unable to pay their medical bills and the costs of daily living.
Injured workers should be prepared to take immediate action to protect their health, safety, well-being, and legal rights. Workers’ compensation claims and third parties are complicated. It is crucial that you take proactive steps to put yourself in the best position to heal your injury and also navigate the claims process. Following an accident on the job, an injured worker should do the following:
Our firm takes on all types of work injury claims in Iowa and Nebraska. Regardless of how and why you were hurt, our workers’ comp and personal injury attorneys are ready to take action to protect your rights, help you find the best path forward and help you to recover. Our law firm represents clients who have sustained a wide range of workplace injuries, including:
Ultimately, the goal of a workers’ compensation lawyer is to help the injured worker obtain all of the benefits they are entitled to after a work injury.
To do so, our lawyers utilize legal research to help back up claims when they are denied, file suit, go through a discovery process, and remaining current on new laws that may affect your claim. These are just some things one of our lawyers can bring to the table when dealing with a troublesome workers’ comp issue. Filing suit and going to trial may also be necessary to receive maximum compensation.
In some cases, the insurance company may try to claim that you had a pre-existing condition, so your injury is not work-related. The experienced workers’ comp lawyers from our firm will work hard to help you prove otherwise. Many times, you are often eligible for workers’ compensation benefits despite having a pre-existing condition.
Recently, some insurers have grown more aggressive in trying to deny claims. They request that a doctor hired by them for a DME (defense medical exam) provides an evaluation. These doctors are hired by the insurance carrier and are provided information by the carrier about you and your claim.
It is important that information is true and correct and that the doctor has all the relevant information. Insurers often may dig through your social media accounts or conduct video surveillance of you to try to determine whether you are really as injured as you claim.
Such things are very invasive and make injured workers feel paranoid despite having done nothing wrong. We can advise you how to protect yourself, protect your privacy, and tell you your rights in such situations.
To arrange a free initial consultation to discuss your work injuries, please call us at
712-323-0999. You can also contact our law firm online.
The workers’ compensation system was designed to make it easier for those injured on the job to receive needed medical care and compensation.
The system is a no-fault system, so it is not based on whether someone did something wrong. The test as to whether workers’ compensation applies to you is whether your injury arose out of and in the course of your employment. Even when injuries are due to worker carelessness or error, you may still be entitled to benefits.
In an accepted claim a worker should never have to pay a medical bill out of pocket to treat their work injury. Prompt treatment is necessary to make a full recovery, so in this respect the workers’ compensation system can benefit workers.
Workers’ compensation also provides partial wage replacement benefits for injured workers who are taken off of work by an authorized medical provider either temporarily or permanently following a work-related injury. Although these benefits only replace a percentage of your weekly wage, they are a vital source of income.
There could be a few reasons for a denied claim. Workers’ compensation only covers work-related injuries. In your case, there might be some dispute about where or how you were injured. Often times though, even injuries that you might now expect to be covered can be covered. We can help advise you on these matters.
Some injuries are denied as you might have a pre-existing injury or condition. Even with a pre-existing condition, you can often still receive compensation if a workplace accident made a pre-existing condition worse. As your legal team, we carefully go over your medical records to demonstrate the casual link between your workplace accident and your current symptoms.
Sometimes workers are injured in non-traumatic ways. This is called cumulative repetitive trauma and is caused by repetitive motion. It is a very real injury that comes on gradually over time. Such injuries still entitle many workers to benefits and care. Ask us if your injury entitles you to benefits and care.
At the Law Offices of Gallner & Pattermann, we analyze whether an injured worker can also bring a lawsuit against a third party. With a third-party claim (a claim against someone other than your employer), you can receive much more compensation than you otherwise would receive from only workers’ compensation benefits. If the only claim which exists from your injury is against your employer, then workers’ compensation is your only remedy.
In third-party cases, workers can receive:
An injured worker is expected to live on a percentage of their average wage—even if they are totally disabled. However, if your claim also supports a corresponding personal injury lawsuit, you can recover the above benefits that workers’ compensation does not provide.
We often pursue third party claims. These arise if there is a party other than the employer who caused or contributed to your injury and damages. One such situation is if you were hit by a motorist while traveling for work. In that circumstance, you can often receive workers’ compensation benefits and also sue the other driver for additional benefits that workers’ compensation does not provide.
Our workers’ compensation attorney is highly experienced in all aspects of these cases, from handling issues before the Iowa Industrial Commissioner & Nebraska’s Workers’ Compensation Court to dealing with insurers, to providing calming advice and answers to injured individuals and families. Let us do the work to help you. You have enough to do while healing. Healing should be your primary concern. Let us deal with the rest.
Our law firm has a long record of success obtaining benefits for injured workers. To arrange a free initial consultation with a skilled workers’ compensation lawyer, call (712) 323-0999. You can also contact our Council Bluffs law firm online.
We represent workers, both union and non-union, who suffered on-the-job injuries, as well as those who develop work-related medical conditions or occupational diseases. Every day, workers are injured in accidents or as a result of ongoing repetitive motions. This is called cumulative repetitive trauma and often occurs to an individual’s back, neck, or shoulders. Workers suffer from various painful, serious injuries:
Such injuries often prevent workers from going back to work and might even require intensive rehab. Workers’ compensation should pay the medical expenses to treat your injury, time off of work as prescribed by a doctor, mileage reimbursement to and from medical appointments and to pick up prescriptions, and for any loss of earning capacity or loss of access to the job market you may have suffered from your work injury.
If an injury keeps you out of work, you face the prospect of lost wages. This is one of the great fears that workers have—being unable to make income due to an injury. With no money coming in the door, injured workers and their families worry about losing their home or being forced into bankruptcy. Workers’ compensation benefits may be available to replace some of your lost income following an accident. Workers’ compensation may also owe you for a permanent functional loss and/or loss of earning capacity and your loss of ability to get or hold a job going forward. Whether you are temporarily or permanently disabled, help is available.
Contact our team to learn what workers’ compensation should cover and why you may have trouble obtaining it without legal representation.
Following a workplace accident, care is important. Without it, you cannot heal. You may need a medical procedure or diagnostic test, but your employer or the insurance company might be refusing to allow it. These tests are necessary to find out what is wrong and treat you. Let us help. Your ability to work going forward is not something to take lightly. Let us help protect it.
An insurer should pay for necessary medical care to treat your work injury. Necessary care can include:
If an insurance company refuses to cover a medical expense associated with your work injury, we may be able to help. Call us.
Depression is a common side effect of a traumatic injury or a disabling condition. It is difficult when you associate yourself with capabilities you no longer have due to an injury. Anxiety and depression often set in when injured workers must watch family and friends take care of things that they usually did. It is tough to heal when depression or anxiety set in. Some accidents even cause post-traumatic stress disorder, which causes a victim to relive the accident or experience tremendous stress in similar situations. If this describes you, let us help you receive compensation for this very real, but often overlooked, condition.
Exposure to airborne toxins or cancer-causing chemicals in the workplace can lead to long term health problems that may be covered by workers’ compensation. However, workplace exposure cases present complicated factual and legal issues. To win such a case, you often need an expert to connect your illness and symptoms to your workplace. If you suffer from respiratory illness, then the insurance company may claim it is the result of genetics or smoking. Your employer is only responsible if you were injured by an exposure at work that caused your symptoms or such exposure permanently aggravated a pre-existing condition.
It’s not unheard of for a valid workers’ comp claim to be denied. You should receive a denial letter spelling out precisely why the insurer has denied coverage. However, carriers often don’t communicate well. If you were injured at work and your employer or the insurance carrier are not responding or not communicating with you, let us help.
When you’re counting on workers’ compensation to make important bill payments, a delay in your claim is frustrating and disruptive. Many of our clients fear losing their homes or being evicted from their apartments. Delays only increase the financial stress an injured worker feels. Our lawyers can help you when this occurs by lighting a fire under an insurance company.
Workers’ compensation benefits only apply if your injury arises out and in the course of your work. Sometimes, people are working away from their office or jobsite. There is always a question whether they are covered by workers’ comp when there is an injury in these situations, as many exceptions exist.
For example, you might travel as part of your job to give presentations or to meet with clients. If you are traveling as part of the job, you are probably working. As a result, a car accident you suffer while traveling to the presentation could be covered by workers’ compensation.
By contrast, someone running an errand during their lunch break who has a car accident is likely not traveling for a job-related purpose, and therefore may not be able to receive benefits under workers’ compensation law.
An injury that impedes your ability to work could result in the loss of income that you were counting on to support your family. No one should be forced into bankruptcy because of a workplace injury. It is often possible to have these lost wages compensated. If you are in this situation, find out your rights.
Our workers’ compensation lawyer Laura Pattermann and her experienced team fight to protect the rights of injured workers. Laura has done it for over 30 years. No matter your occupation, whether you are a union worker or non-union worker, a truck driver, a nurse, a welder, a steamfitter or boilermaker, corrections officer, CNA, or working on a factory line, the Law Offices of Gallner & Pattermann, P.C. will work to you get you the maximum workers’ comp benefits you can receive.
