Tricky Territory: Who's to Blame in a Parking Lot Accident
Surprisingly, twenty percent of all insurance claims filed are for car accidents occurring in parking lots according to the Institute for Highway Safety. Most parking lots are privately owned. That means that they fall under private property driving laws which are put in place to protect both the general public and the owner. Unless an…
Read MoreWhat Your State Doesn't Know About Zip Lines Could Kill You
In Lexington, Kentucky, at the Red Mile Crawfish Festival an 11 year-old girl’s zip line snapped as soon as she took off from the platform, causing her to fall 20 feet. While investigating the freighting scene, police discovered that the carabiner clip on her harness was broken. In Sevierville, Tennessee, after failing to properly attach…
Read MoreYOU ARE NOT IN GOOD HANDS WITH ALLSTATE
By the time Sharon Lane was rear-ended on September 9, 2010 on her way to work by a careless uninsured driver on Interstate 40 in Nashville, she had been paying premiums for car insurance to Allstate for 16 years. She paid extra money each month to have uninsured motorists coverage to protect her and her family…
Read MoreCan I Trust My Nurse Case Manager?
In Tennessee, not every injured worker is going to interact with a nurse case manager, but many do. I can’t count the times a new client has expressed some concern about whose side the nurse case manager is on. I tell people to be careful who they trust, and remember who hired the nurse case…
Read MoreWhy Do I Have to Pay Back My Health Insurance From My Settlement?
Every time I give a client a breakdown of their settlement to let them know where each and every penny is going, they are shocked that a portion of their recovery has to go to their health insurance. Clients will ask, and rightfully so, why should my insurance company get paid from my settlement? Because you have…
Read MoreCan I sue my co-employee for negligence that caused my work injury?
Rocky McElhaney Law Firm has helped hundreds of workers who have been hurt on the job. The ways they have been hurt vary from a saw malfunctioning and cutting them, slipping on spilled liquids in a warehouse, to wrecks on the interstate. One common situation we’ve seen is that the worker is injured because a…
Read MoreWhat is a contingency fee?
Attorney fees are the center of most lawyer jokes. Some people do not know, or understand, how lawyers are paid. While there are many new payment methods breaking through, there are a couple of traditional ways that lawyers get paid – by the hour, and on a contingency fee basis. The hourly rate of a lawyer…
Read MoreWhat is a meaningful return to work, and what does that mean for my case?
Under current Tennessee workers’ compensation law one of the biggest factors in determining how much money an injured worker receives for a disability award is whether the worker made “a meaningful return to work”. While other factors, such as impairment rating and compensation rate are important, if an injured worker has not made a meaningful…
Read MoreWhat should I do when the insurance company denies future medical treatment?
So, you’ve settled your workers’ compensation claim. The insurance company has paid you, and they agreed in writing that you keep your right to future medical treatment with your authorized doctor (so long as the treatment is related to your work injury). Now, down the road a month, a year, or a decade later, the…
Read MoreMy Case is Settled. How Much of the Settlement is Going to Me?
Good news! After fighting the insurance company and forcing them to do the right thing or see you in court, they finally cave and decide to pay you what your case is worth to settle. But now that it is settled, how much of the settlement is going to go to you? In other words,…
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