You went to a BRC for your workers' compensation case and you didn't settle. So what's next? Your case is now going to enter into a litigation phase through the Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Court at the Tennessee Department of Labor. This is the time where we'll start moving your case toward a final trial. [...]
If you've been injured at work in Tennessee and you hire our law firm, we may ask you to go to an IME. IME stands for Independent Medical Examination. We do that when we think it's necessary to get a second opinion on your impairment rating connected to your case. Once you've reached maximum medical [...]
One of the many questions that I get asked frequently by workers’ compensation clients is “what happens when (or now that) I am released by the doctor?” What should my attorney do for me once I'm released at Maximum Medical Improvement? Here at Rocky McElhaney Law Firm, when you get released at Maximum Medical Improvement [...]
What is an impairment rating? In a Tennessee workers’ compensation claim, one of the most important variables that determines what an injured worker can receive in a monetary disability award is the permanent partial impairment rating assigned for the employee’s injury. Making sure our clients receive the correct rating is one of the many ways [...]
As your lawyer in your workers' compensation case, we're gonna take over talking to the adjuster. We're gonna take over talking to the nurse case manager, and we're gonna take over handling your claim. You are now free to worry about getting better and getting back to work. Our paralegal will be assigned, and she’ll [...]
If you're injured at work in Tennessee, it is illegal for the employer to fire you if you make a claim. Now rest assured if you get put on restrictions and you’re not able to do the job after your injury, the employer can let you go. If it's also a very small company [...]
In these uncertain times of health insurance in America, it's not wise for you to close out your medical benefits in your workers’ compensation case. If you settle your claim with open benefits, then you receive those medical benefits for your entire life, for whatever treatment is needed for this injury, so long as the [...]
If you've been injured at work and your doctor has assigned restrictions, if your employer is willing to accommodate those restrictions, it is very important that you try to go back to work and work within those restrictions. If you don't, you risk your doctor losing faith in you, in your efforts to try to [...]
In your workers’ compensation case, there may a nurse case manager assigned by the insurance company. That nurse case manager has a right to come to your doctors’ appointments and a right to talk to your treating doctor. The nurse case manager does not have a right to go into the room with you and [...]
This is a terrible topic to discuss, because we fought against these changes so hard for so long; we could just not get people to listen. Back in the 2013 legislative session, the Governor of Tennessee introduced a workers’ compensation reformation bill, which just totally gutted the system and screwed the Tennessee worker. I fought [...]
