Workers Compensation
What are Interrogatories and How Am I Supposed to Answer Them?
Interrogatories- a legal instrument not to be taken lightly. When you think interrogatories, think interrogation on paper. Often served with your Complaint or shortly thereafter, they are a strategic set of questions designed to reveal more about the parties and facts involved in the case. Once all the other parties involved in your case file…
Read MoreIs Your Employer In Compliance With Tennessee’s New OSHA Reporting Rules?
OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) is a part of the United States Department of Labor and created by Congress to assure safe and healthy working conditions by setting standards and guidelines and providing information, training and assistance to workers and employees. To help accomplish this goal, the organization affords workers protections under the law without the retaliation or discrimination…
Read MoreComplex Workers’ Compensation Cases and Multiple On-the-Job Injuries- A Real Life Example
In the state of Tennessee, if a person has injured more than one part of their body during the same workplace accident, the calculation of permanent impairment benefits can get complicated. But, what if an individual suffers a serious injury which causes that person to overcompensate with another part of the body? If the overcompensated…
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 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 MoreCan I Get a Second Opinion in My Workers’ Compensation Case?
Raise your hand if you’ve said or thought any of the following during your workers compensation claim: My doctor isn’t listening to me. The doctor says there’s nothing more he can do, but I’m still in pain. I don’t trust my doctor and more because (fill in the blank). The insurance company’s Nurse Case Manager…
Read MoreSafety Procedures, Willful Misconduct and Workers’ Compensation
If you have been injured on the job, you may be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. The key word is “may.” Just because an individual is injured while at work, does not automatically guarantee them benefits under the Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Act. Tennessee Code Annotated 50-6-110 holds in part that no compensation shall be allowed…
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