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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Nine Steps to How We Work

1. The initial meeting with you. We'll meet, usually at our office, but sometimes at your house or just over the phone. We'll want to know how you got hurt and what's happened in your case. We'll need to know what you want from us so we
can tell you whether or not we can do that for you. We'll work together to set some goals for your case. If we think we can help you we'll explain what we'd do to reach those goals. We do not charge for this, but you should be willing to
commit an hour or so to this meeting.

2. We'll set up your file. We'll sign a simple, one-page agreement written in plain English saying that you want us to represent you in your case. It states that you agree to pay us a fee if we obtain or keep intact a benefit for you. The Industrial Commission sets those fees, but it's no more than 25% of what we get for you.) Unless we have to go to a hearing to preserve your benefits we do
NOT charge a fee on weekly checks that you're already getting. (We know it's common but we disagree with lawyers who do.) You'll sign some medical releases which allow us to get your records. You'll meet with one of our paralegals who will do a thorough intake with you and set up your file on our computers.

3. We'll notify the Industrial Commission, your employer, and their insurance company that we represent you. We'll prepare the necessary
Industrial Commission forms and notify all involved that we're on your case. From that point forward they will deal with us. If you already had an attorney we'll need them to resign before we can take this step. (We do not encourage people
to switch attorneys, but we understand that some lawyers do an ineffective job representing their clients. They don't return phone calls, they aren't aggressive with the insurance company, and they seem more interested in making a quick buck
than they are in helping you. Thus the Industrial Commission will let you switch lawyers. It doesn't cost you anything extra - the two attorneys will split the fees.)

4. We'll protect your case while you're in treatment. We'll gather your medical records, put in for mileage reimbursements, make sure your treatment proceeds as it should. We'll speak with you regularly so that we know exactly what is going on in your case. We'll monitor all efforts to have you sent back to work. We'll make sure any rehabilitation nurse on your file is putting your interests first.

5. We'll help you evaluate your case for settlement. Once you've reached maximum medical improvement your case will heat up. At this point in your case your doctor will give you a "rating" which documents your permanent loss of
use of your injured body part. The doctor will also give you permanent physical restrictions which may limit your ability to do your regular job. While there are countless variations to this, basically if you can return to your old job you'll
be paid your rating. If you cannot ever return to work again you'll get paid for the rest of your life. If you're like 95% of our clients you're somewhere in between. You'll be entitled to a settlement which takes into account any wage loss you might have in the near future, the difficulty you'll have in finding a new job, and the cost of future medical treatment you may need.

6. We'll shield you from the insurance company. Just as we'll have evaluated your case the adjuster will have done the same thing. She'll have one goal: to close your file as cheaply as possible. And the adjuster knows that the more they mess with you the more likely it is that you'll settle quickly and cheaply. Expect them to play games with your checks so you never know when they're coming. They may assign vocational rehabilitation and ask you to look for a series of jobs you're not
remotely qualified or interested in.

7. We'll take your case to a hearing without any hesitation. Many attorneys do a lot of advertising about how aggressive they are - but then they always settle before actually taking the case to trial. An attorney doesn't earn the respect or fear
of adjusters if everyone knows he'll fold the day before it's time to have the hearing in the case. If the adjuster isn't worried about what will happen if they don't settle you'll never get the highest settlement. With hundreds of cases tried to a reported Opinion and Award our attorneys' track record for going to hearing even in the
tough cases is well-known.

8. We'll be as patient as is necessary. We don't push clients to settle quickly. It's got to make sense and we want to make sure you get the best possible outcome. By being patient we routinely get settlements which are greater than other attorneys had said was possible. But we won't encourage you to pass up good-paying jobs just to increase your workers comp settlement (and our fees). We'll work closely with you to make sure that a settlement makes sense in the big picture, taking into account your financial needs and job possibilities over the long-term.

9. We'll negotiate relentlessly with the insight that comes from experience. That's what comes from having over 80 years of workers compensation experience. Three of our five workers compensation attorneys are among the
2% of North Carolina lawyers who are board certified as specialists in workers compensation. Two spent over thirty years representing insurance companies and bring an inside knowledge of how adjusters think and value claims. Three are certified as mediators, facilitating settlements for hundreds of other cases. It's not an exaggeration to say that we know how to think like an adjuster, how to value
a claim like an adjuster, and how to beat them at their own game.