Practice Areas

• Workers' Compensation
• Personal Injury
• Social Security Disability

Firm News

• Workers Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission shows 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....
• Workers' Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission says Liberty Mutual must provide yardcare and housecleaning to an injured brickmason....
• Workers' Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission rules that a restaurant dishwasher who slipped and fell, and was taken straight to an emergency room has proven that he was injured on the job....
• Workers' Compensation: 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....
• Workers' Compensation: 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."...
• Workers' Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission rules against The Hartford Insurance Company and holds that a nurse who was still on her employer's property when she was hit by a car is within the course and scope of her employment and entitled to workers' compensation benefits....
• Workers' Compensation: North Carolina Industrial Commission finds that Diebold and Broadspire MUST pay weekly benefits even after they fired the injured worker from her "light duty" job....
• 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....

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Library

Workers' Compensation

• Workers' Comp Tips
• My Employer Says They Don't Have Workers Comp Insurance
• Ten Ways to Wreck Your Workers' Compensation Claim, Online Edition
• What is the Present Value of Money and Why Should I Care?
• Five Ways Doctors Can Hurt Your Case

Personal Injury

• How Uninsured Motorist Insurance protects you in a personal injury claim.

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 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."

"You absolutely are the experts in Workers' Compensation law. You never made me feel foolish."

"You know every aspect of workers' comp and used that to my benefit."

"You were very knowledgeable and treated me with utmost respect."

"I never had another worry after hiring you."

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An Eleventh Way to Wreck a Workers' Comp Claim

A lot of clients come to us concerned about private investigators. In workers comp cases these guys usually aren’t too subtle. Often they park directly across the street from your house in an SUV with darkened windows. Then when you leave to go to Biscuitville they fire up and follow you in an attempt to prove that you couldn’t possibly be injured if you’re capable of driving to a fast food restaurant. OK, that might be a little sarcastic. But generally private investigators are more of a nuisance than a hazard. Our three rules:

1. Don’t get caught doing something you specifically told a doctor you cannot do. The doctor will think you’re a liar and won’t believe what you tell him.

2. Don’t get caught doing something clearly outside of your restrictions. If you can do it for eight hours at home you could probably do it for eight hours at work.

3. Don’t get caught working a different job, get caught taking your paycheck to a bank, and then get caught going to a bar to spend your paycheck. We don’t really have to explain why this is a bad idea.

But I have discovered a fourth instance which I have never warned a single client about. This error is so catastrophic that it really could be the Eleventh Way to Wreck a Workers Comp Claim. Don’t get caught dressed in drag competing in a spoon race. Here’s the whole story:

A jailer in Naugatuck, Connecticut, Garrett A. Dalton, brought a workers comp claim for a back injury. While out of work and drawing disability checks his local radio station ran a contest to win tickets to a Hannah Montana concert. This particular contest required (male) contestants to put on dresses and high heels and then do a 40-yard dash while carrying a spoon with an egg balanced on it.

As you might imagine this was an amusing scene and a local television station covered the event. Sadly for Officer Dalton, he did not win the race or the Hannah Montana tickets. Worse yet, a co-worker saw the TV broadcast, recognized Dalton, and alerted their employer. Next thing you know, Dalton was criminally charged with workers compensation fraud.