Injury Lawyers to Help You Understand Workers Comp

We are a Missouri Law Firm specializing in helping people hurt at work get their fair compensation for their work injury by helping them understand the system.  A Workers’ Compensation claim is not a lawsuit in a strict sense.  It is an administrative claim processed in the Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations and the Missouri Division of Workers’ Compensation.  The claim is the way the employer’s Workers’ Compensation insurance company provides benefits to injured workers.  The Missouri Workers’ Compensation system was originally designed to provide a quicker and easier way for injured workers to get benefits. 

It used to be that an injured worker had to sue in civil court for any injury the worker suffered.  Of course, that process could take years, and many workers and their families were effectively denied justice because the law suit took so long, and no compensation was paid to the worker while the law suit was going.  The Workers’ Compensation Law made it so an injured worker could get medical help right away, payment for lost work, compensation for permanent injuries, and also payment for ugly, permanent scars.

Recent changes to that system have made it harder and harder for injured workers to get benefits and disability payments without a lawyer who handles workers compensation cases, especially since sweeping changes in the Workers’ Compensation Law took place in Missouri in 2005.  Workers’ Compensation cases are usually the only legal way to get compensation for someone hurt at work (the law calls the workers' compensation system the "exclusive remedy" for the employer to get compensation if hurt at work). 

This means you have to fight for your rights to make sure you get appropriate medical treatment, payment for time lost from work, payment for medical treatment, compensation in the form of lump sum disability payments, or permanent total disability.

The Hein Law Firm defends injured workers to help get them the compensation they need and deserve for work-related injuries, work accidents, sickness and to get compensation for their families if the worker dies from an accident at work.  If warranted, we also send our clients to independent doctors to get independent medical examinations for injuries that workers suffer in order to make sure the client gets the most money possible for his or her injury, and also to make sure we are “keepin’ ‘em honest” – that is, making sure the company’s insurance company is paying what is should for the worker’s injury, given all the facts and the law.

These are the areas covered under this Category, for your additional information.

No Recovery, No Fee!

The Hein Law Firm accepts work comp injury cases on a contingency basis. This means you only pay attorneys' fees if we get you compensation. For a free consultation with a lawyer, call us at (314) 645-7900, or contact us online.

Medical Causation in Workers' Compensation Cases

The term "Medical Causation" in the context of a workers compensation case refers to the burden that an injured worker has to prove that the injury, which is a medical condition, was caused by the work accident.  The Missouri Workers’ Compensation Law was amended in 2005 to include some "magic language" that an injured worker has to prove in order to have a viable workers compensation case.  The new 2005 law made it for the injury to be compensable, an injured worker now has to prove that the work injury was the “prevailing factor” in causing the injury and level of disability and medical condition.  Medical causation is needed in cases where some kind of trauma happened or where an employee is injured by an occupational exposure or repetitive stress that is part of their employment.

The law devines the "prevailing factor" as the primary factor in comparison to any other possible factor resulting in the employee’s injury.  For example, in carpal tunnel cases, the injured worker now has to prove that the repetitive stress of the work (typing, jack hammering, using the hands over and over again) is the “prevailing factor”, and not another type of disease that can be a factor in causing carpal tunnel, like obesity, diabetes, or thyroid problems.  These cases are very difficult to prove without a “medical causation” opinion from an independent doctor, which is what we have to seek in these types of cases when there is another possible factor involved in the injured worker’s health history.

Employees commonly seek our assistance in their work injury claims in helping determine the cause of their injury.  Our firm commonly requests independent doctors and medical professionals evaluate our clients in a clinical setting to determine the precise cause and extent of injuries.

No Recovery, No Fee!

The Hein Law Firm accepts injury cases on a contingency basis. This means you only pay attorney's fees if we get you compensation. For a free consultation with an Lawyer Experienced in Medical Causation Workers Compensation Issues, call us at 314.645.7900, or contact us online.

If you are an injured worker and cannot get employment or compete on the open labor market after a work injury, you may be entitled to Permanent Total Disability payments.  If the injury with your last employer caused the Permanent Total Disability, then that employer would be responsible for payment of the Permanent Total Disability payments.  If the last work injury combined with pre-existing injuries caused the permanent disability, then the Second Injury Fund is responsible for such payments.  

A permanently and totally disabled worker is entitled to receive weekly payments for the permanent disability at the weekly temporary total disability rate.  Proving Permanent Total Disability is quite difficult because the employee must establish that he or she is completely unable to perform any form of employment on the open labor market.  Lawyers are usually needed to prove that an employee cannot continue in the labor market.  Our office commonly refers employees for evaluations with doctors and other experts to determine fully whether an the injured worker has reached the level of disability that entitles them to permanent total disability payments.  An employee who is totally disabled may also receive Social Security benefits for disability.

No Recovery, No Fee!

The Hein Law Firm accepts injury cases on a contingency basis. This means you only pay attorney's fees if we get you compensation. For a free consultation with a Permanent Total Disability Lawyer, call us at (314) 645-7900, or contact us online.

The treating or “company” doctor in a Workers’ Compensation case may make a determination that an injured worker is able to go back to work, but only on a limited or light duty basis for some period of time.  A good example is someone with a back injury who the doctor says can work, but can only lift a certain number of pounds (like 10 pounds or 15 pounds, for example).

The employee then needs to inform the employer of the doctor's recommended medical restriction.  The law says the employer must try to seek an accomodation of the injured worker's medical needs.  This is to say that if there is some type of work available at the place of employment, the physical requirements of which would comply with the doctor's orders, then the worker can go back to work at that accomodated job position (in the above example, a job which does not require lifiting more than 10 or 15 pounds).  This accomodated job is called "light duty work."

If there is light duty work available at your job, your employer can let you work on a limited basis only so long as there is an accommodation of the specific medical restrictions that the company doctor sets out.  The injured worker may still be able to get some amount of benefits while on light duty to make up the difference in lost wages.  That is called Temporary Partial Disability (TPD), but is quite rare.

If your job does not have any light duty work available for you, you will likely be able to continue to receive Temporary Total Disability (TTD) payments for the time lost from work while under active treatment for the injury.  This means, if your job doesn’t have any light duty available, you stay home until the doctor says you can go back to work without medical restrictions.  In the meantime, you continue to receive your weekly workers’ compensation payments to help you maintain your family while you cannot work.

No Recovery, No Fee!

The Hein Law Firm accepts injury cases on a contingency basis. This means you only pay attorney's fees if we get you compensation. For a free consultation with a lawyer, call us at (314) 645-7900, or contact us online.