Practice Areas

• Workers' Compensation
• Personal Injury
• Social Security Disability

Firm News

• North Carolina Industrial Commission: The Vocational Rehabilitation Professional, from Page Rehabilitation, had a "strained interpretation of suitable employment and the duration of her proposed job search raises serious questions as to whether her objective was to benefit plaintiff or defendants."...
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: Liberty Mutual must provide yardcare and housecleaning to an injured brickmason....
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: A restaurant dishwasher who slipped and fell, and was taken straight to an emergency room has proven that he was injured on the job....
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: Sanctions against the insurance company for failing to accept a claim when our client, an insulation installer, was in an auto accident....
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: We beat both AIG and Zurich in proving that this truck driver for a brick company had two separate accidents which both injured his knee, ultimately disabling him....
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: OTP Lawyers stepped in to save an injured plumber whose original lawyer couldn't get the job done against Key Risk....
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: Facing down the Argonaut workers' compensation adjuster in a disputed carpal tunnel case...
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: In this case with Kemper Insurance company the NCIC found that the employer, Cintas, "schemed" to fire plaintiff while she was on light duty....
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: When are you "on the job" to be covered by workers' compensation?...
• North Carolina Industrial Commission: A restaurant manager who suffered gunshot wounds in a hold-up is entitled to a yard worker and a housecleaner because he cannot do much of his own work anymore....

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Library

Workers' Compensation

• Workers' Comp Tips
• My Employer Says They Don't Have Workers Comp Insurance
• What is the Present Value of Money and Why Should I Care?
• Seven Things which Make Adjusters Happy
• Five Ways Doctors Can Hurt Your Case

Social Security Disability

• Five Social Security Disability Tips
• What on Earth is a Workers' Compensation Offset?
• What People Applying For Disability Need To Know

General

• The Ten Worst Insurance Companies

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Testimonials

"From the initial interview until the check came I was treated like family. I have and will continue to recommend you to friends and family."

"I was impressed with your firm from the beginning... Although I'm sure you are totally busy with cases I always felt as though mine were the only one you were handling. All my calls were promptly returned and I really appreciate that."

"You were right up front about what the workers' compensation adjuster would try to do. I did not know anything about workers' compensation laws. I think your firm did an amazing job for me and my family."

"You were very easy to work with."

"You really know workers' compensation."

"You were the experts... I absolutely could not have gotten the same results without your help."

"You helped me in every way."

"You were abale to spot the problems immediately and fix them."

"There's no way I could have gotten the same results without your help."

"Your office a very, very profesional office. You have always treated me with great respect, honesty, and integrity."

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Certificates/Rankings

Martindale-Hubbell's Peer Review Ratings are considered invaluable when evaluating a lawyer. When making referrals or looking for counsel in another jurisdiction, lawyers need to have confidence in the individual under consideration. By reviewing the Ratings, they can select counsel with superior ethics, as well as the desired level of professional experience.

Peer Review Ratings attest to a lawyer's legal ability and professional ethics, and reflect the confidential opinions of members of the Bar and Judiciary. The Ratings are part of a century-long tradition and are exclusive to Martindale-Hubbell. The legal community respects the accuracy of Ratings because it knows that its own members - the people best suited to assess their peers - are directly involved in the process.

There are two components to each Martindale-Hubbell Peer Review Rating:

1. Legal Ability Ratings

Legal Ability Ratings take into consideration the standard of professional ability in the area where the lawyer practices, the lawyer's expertise, and other professional qualifications. If a lawyer's practice is limited or specialized, Peer Review Ratings are based on performance in those specific fields of law.

Legal Ability Ratings are:
C - Good to High
B - High to Very High
A - Very High to Preeminent

2. General Ethical Standards Rating

The General Ethical Standards Rating denotes adherence to professional standards of conduct and ethics, reliability, diligence and other criteria relevant to the discharge of professional responsibilities.

The General Recommendation Rating is:
V - Very High

A lawyer will not receive a Legal Ability Rating unless he or she has been endorsed for a "V." When both categories of Peer Review Ratings are confirmed, a lawyer receives an CV, BV or AV Rating.

CV Peer Review Rating — an excellent first Rating and a statement of a lawyer's above average ability and very high ethics.

BV Peer Review Rating — an indication of an exemplary reputation and well-established practice. A typical lawyer is in mid-career, with a significant client base and high professional standing.

AV Peer Review Rating — shows that a lawyer has reached the height of professional excellence. He or she has usually practiced law for many years, and is recognized for the highest levels of skill and integrity.

Why does Board Certification matter?

Simple, it shows who really knows what they're doing. It's what separates the serious lawyers from the guys on television who spend more time with the advertising agency than they do in the courtroom. Workers' Compensation is not a place for amateurs, and your case is too important to trust to someone who does a little comp, a little real estate, and a divorce here and there. Who do the insurance companies use? Lawyers who do workers' comp and nothing else. You cannot afford a lawyer who knows less about workers' compensation law than your employer and the insurance company does.

So who is Board Certified?

Click here to go to the North Carolina Bar Association's website to see who is Board Certified in Workers' Compensation and who is just doing a lot of advertising.

What the North Carolina State Bar says about Board Certification?

The Board of Legal Specialization was created in 1983 by the North Carolina State Bar and began certifying North Carolina lawyers as legal specialists in 1987. The Board was established to create a method by which qualified North Carolina lawyers might become certified as specialists in designated areas of the law. The goals of the legal certification program are twofold.

First, the program assists in the delivery of legal services to the public by identifying to the public those lawyers who have demonstrated special knowledge, skill, and proficiency in a specific field. By identifying these lawyers, members of the public can more closely match their needs with available services.

Second, the legal specialization program seeks to improve the competency of members of the Bar by establishing an additional incentive for lawyers to participate in continuing legal education and to meet other requirements of specialization.

Now available!

Our book "10 Ways to Wreck Your Workers’ Compensation Claim" and our controversial report 10 Things Your Insurance Adjuster Won’t Tell You"