TRADE ASSOCIATE MEMBER UPDATE

“Listen to your employees!”

By Barbara Wunder, FFVA Communications Manager

Getting hurt on the job is serious business. Workers who suffer injuries or illnesses under their employer’s watch deserve to be compensated and treated and allowed sufficient time to recover.  Likewise, those who would attempt to take advantage of a fraudulent claim or engage in over-reaching deserve to be held responsible.

Occasionally, questions arise regarding benefit entitlement. That’s when the law firm of Hurley, Rogner, Miller, Cox, Waranch & Westcott steps into the scene. HRMCW, or HR for short, is an FFVA Trade Associate Member that businesses call on when something is amiss with a workers’ compensation claim.

Attorney Paul Westcott assists employers and insurance carriers in workers comp cases.

Partner Paul Westcott explains the process. “The law says it’s supposed to be a self-executing system, meaning if someone gets hurt, the insurance company or the claims handler will investigate it, determine if it’s compensable, start providing the appropriate medical care, manage the medical care, and pay the person during the time that they’re not working. It doesn’t always happen that way,” he said.

“Sometimes, after a person is injured, he or she is home watching TV and will see an ad from an attorney saying he can get you a settlement. The worker calls for a free consultation. The lawyer has to justify his involvement, so he files what is called a petition for benefits, which is similar to the civil complaint in civil court for personal injury cases. So that’s what gets somebody into the system. When an injured worker hires a lawyer, the carrier will usually respond by getting a lawyer,” Westcott explained.

THE IMPORTANCE OF LISTENING

Westcott offers some important ways employers can avoid workers’ comp cases by preventing mishaps in the first place. “The best things you can do are, first, be mindful of safety issues. Make sure you are promoting and developing a safe work environment. The other is to listen to your employees so that you know when there is a workers’ comp issue.”

Occasionally, the firm will get cases where someone will say they have been hurt but the employer did nothing about it and the employee sought medical care on his own. The conversation may have actually been one in which the claimant had complained that his back hurt and the employer didn’t hear the part about it being caused by lifting a heavy object on the job. “Employers sometimes take a ‘what I don’t know won’t hurt me’ kind of approach, and so they don’t ask the next question, which is whether it’s work-related,” said Westcott.

That creates an environment where the claimant goes to a clinic or the emergency room on his own, a scenario the worker’s lawyer likes to see.  “Because they can make the employer look like they’re avoiding the system,” said Westcott. “So if you have reason to worry if someone has been injured on the job, ask them. And then be sure to report it so the appropriate steps can be taken by the experts that you’ve paid for, which would be the claims-handling folks.”

Westcott advises putting the carrier on notice as quickly as possible, so the investigation can get started. “The system is set up so that when you have a work-related injury, you’re to be provided benefits. But what you’re looking for are people who may have a Monday  morning injury: ‘Oh, I got hurt yesterday playing softball, but today I’m coming in and pretending that I got hurt on the job,’ ”said Westcott. 

The system is designed to take care of injured workers.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of people willing to cheat or take advantage of the system.  “With timely reporting, those things can be discovered. You handicap the adjuster investigating the circumstances surrounding the accident if you don’t report it in a timely way.”

Keeping accurate records also is extremely important. “Keep track of days and hours worked and what the workers were handling,” said Westcott. “Employers also should ask around for information. Sometimes I’ll have conversations with employers where they’ll mention that a worker has been complaining about an aching back for years, but the employer never shared that with the adjuster. Think about what you know about the person and share it with the claims handler. Don’t just assume that the claims handler is going to take care of everything. Partner with your claims handler so that person will have as much information as possible. That’s pretty critical,” said Westcott.

STATEWIDE PRESENCE TO SERVE THEIR CLIENTS

HR serves its clients from offices in Fort Pierce (where Westcott is based), Winter Park, Fort Myers, Pompano Beach and Tallahassee. The firm expanded gradually over the past 11 years. The newest office in Fort Myers opened just last summer. “In the past couple of years, we’ve gone from the two offices handling each end of the state, more or less, to having five offices. It’s been very nice. We’ve had a good response from the industry,” Westcott said.

HR assists its clients with more than workers’ comp. The firm also handles commercial and general litigation, liability and casualty defense, auto and commercial trucking claims, insurance coverage disputes, appeals, and subrogation and liability defense.

And the firm is mindful of its clients’ budgets. “We partner with our clients so that we provide them with training in order to help them do what they do better. If the byproduct is that they need us less, that’s OK,” said Westcott. “We try to keep costs down, which is especially important in this economy. We’re not part of the solution if our billing adversely affects decision-making. We try to be fair so clients get good value for their money and we’re contributing to their bottom line.”

To learn more, go to the firm’s Web site at www.hrmcw.com. Or call (407) 571-7400 for additional information about Hurley, Rogner, Miller, Cox, Waranch & Westcott, P.A.