Often the problem that drives clients to call me relates to lost wage checks. Specifically, you may have been hurt a week or two ago, you are getting letters and State Board forms in the mail, but no lost wage check. What exactly are the rules regarding when you are supposed to get that first check?
the insurance company has 21 days after the date of your first missed day from work to issue your first lost wage check. You do not count your last day of work in this calculation
- you will not receive payment for the first 7 days of missed work unless you miss 21 consecutive days
- once you miss 21 consecutive days, the insurance company must pay you for the first 7 days of missed work
- if you do not miss 21 consecutive days, you should receive 2 weeks’ worth of benefits by day 21 after your first day of missed work
Confused? You are not alone. The law seeks to balance the needs of workers for money to pay their bills and the needs of the insurance company to conduct its investigation and set up a payment schedule. Personally, I think that an employee’s suffering when he is hurt and broke for 3 weeks outweighs an inconvenience to an insurance company, but this is the law as it exists currently. More on When Do I Get my First Lost Wage Check?
Filed under Income benefits, Returning to work by 
I understand how important it is that you receive your weekly temporary total disability benefits on time. If you are like many of my clients, when you lose your regular paycheck and you are depending on workers’ compensation, you may be living week to week and you may face significant and dire consequences when your checks are late. Here is what you need to know about late payments, the penalties that the insurance company must pay and what you can do to force the insurance company to issue your check.
Assuming that your claim has been accepted and you are not currently working, your employer’s insurance company must pay your weekly benefit checks on time.
Your first weekly benefit check must be mailed on day 21 after the accident if that check is mailed within Georgia, and it must mailed on the 18th day after the accident if it is mailed from an address outside the state of Georgia. The day of the accident does not count when calculating dates.
Subsequent checks mailed from within Georgia must be postmarked as of the last day of the week (i.e. Saturday) in order for payment to be considered timely.
Subsequent checks mailed from outside of Georgia must be postmarked by the Thursday of the week it is due in order for the payment to be considered timely. More on What Happens if my Weekly Benefit Checks are Late?
Filed under Income benefits, Miscellaneous information, Understanding the Law by
Recently I had a workers’ comp case where my client suffered from a very severe and complex ankle injury and had to undergo 2 surgeries over a period of several months. Even after the surgeries, she still required ongoing medical care and had limited range of movement, resulting in her inability to work certain jobs.
When her initial workers’ comp benefit was calculated, she was awarded a weekly TTD benefit that was a gross underpayment when you looked at all the care she needed and the specifics of her case. After a careful review of the case, it became obvious that her benefit was mis-calculated due to her position as a waitress – where a lot of the money she brought in was due to TIPS.
You see, many times servers and bartenders and other workers who bring in significant income from tips end up experiencing improper wage calculations and mis-calculations of benefits owed when in pursuit of workers’ comp cases. The same is true for workers who work off commissions or receive large bonuses.
In my client’s case, we were able to get her the benefits she deserved (we ended up securing higher TTD benefits, plus TPD and PPD as well), and we were also able to re-calculate her wages to reflect a more accurate picture of what she had been making at the time of the accident. This is why it pays to have a workers’ comp attorney helping you with your case – we see these situations often and can often help you maximize your benefits.
In any case, the tip of the day is this: To anyone bringing in significant income from tips, commissions, or bonuses, KEEP GOOD RECORDS in the event that you are one day injured and have to pursue a workers’ comp case!
Filed under Foot/crush injuries, Income benefits, Maximizing your settlement by
A workers’ compensation claim can result in many unpleasant changes in your life. Besides the health issues and the stress that you have to deal with, financial problems also often arise. Recently one of my workers’ comp clients called me to say that he was very concerned that he was about to be sued for past due credit cards. In addition, he had other debts and was receiving daily phone calls and threatening letters.
He wanted to know if he should consider bankruptcy. As you may know, my husband, Jonathan Ginsberg, has been a consumer bankruptcy lawyer for many years and I asked him to speak with my client. Here is what Jonathan has to say about dealing with these debt issues: More on Weekly Wage Benefits are Exempt from Garnishment
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What is the biggest trap that you can face in your Georgia workers’ compensation case? Without question, issues relating to your return to work after being injured must be handled very carefully.
Let me give you an example. Earlier this month, I received a call from a potential client. This young man – I’ll call him "Tom" – had been working with earth moving equipment for a large construction company that was building a dam on a river in north Georgia. Tom and a co-worker were working late – all of the supervisors and most of the co-workers were gone. The co-worker pushed a large boulder towards Tom and when Tom tried to control the boulder, it rolled onto his hand, crushing a finger and badly injuring his hand.
Tom’s co-workers took him to the emergency room at a local hospital where his condition was stabalized and a hand surgeon was brought in. Tom underwent surgery that very night to repair his hand. Tom was released to go home late that night with a prescription for strong pain medicine and instructions not to use his hand until further notice.
The next morning, a supervisor from Tom’s employer called. Although the accident had literally happened the night before, the supervisor began pressuring Tom to return to work. During that first day after the accident, various supervisors from the employer called and emailed Tom repeatedly to demand that he return to work.
Within a few days, Tom received a letter from the employer’s workers’ compensation insurer stating that his claim would be accepted and that his TTD (temporary total disability benefits) would be forthcoming. At the same time, during this first week, Tom continued to receive calls from his employer requesting that he report back to work.
Tom does not know much about workers’ compensation law, but he sensed that the employer’s actions were not in his best interest. He found Ginsberg Law Offices on the Internet and he called our office. When I first spoke with Tom, he advised me that his employer had never posted a panel of physicians, they had not offered him a prescription drug card, nor had anyone from the employer ever explained to him anything at all about how to file a workers’ compensation claim or about any of his rights thereunder.
Where is the "return to work trap?"
The trap arises when an employee returns to work. Under the Georgia workers’ compensation law, if an injured worker who is receiving his weekly TTD benefits returns to work without a form WC-240, and he cannot perform the assigned job, the TTD benefits stop. If the employer does not volutarily restart them the employee will have to request a hearing (and wait the two to three months for a hearing date) to try and get them restarted.
However, if that same employee returns to work with a WC-240, and cannot perform the assigned job, his TTD benefits will start again immediately.
What is this special form, the WC-240?
A WC-240 is a State Board from that sets out a specific light duty job description. The WC-240 includes the start date for the light duty return to work, specific activity limitations as described by an authorized treating physician, the name and contact information for a supervisor and the light duty rate of pay.
If you return to work with a WC-240 and cannot perform the job duties, you notify the contact supervisor, then you return home knowing that your TTD benefits will start again automatically.
In Tom’s case, had he returned to the dam building site without a WC-240 and been unable to resume work in his heavy construction job, there is a good chance that the employer would have cut him off. At that point, Tom would have no job, no income and no workers’ compensation benefits.
As you can imagine, Tom’s settlement leverage would be very minimal.
I think it is fairly obvious that Tom’s employer has taken an aggressive, "in-your-face" approach to Tom’s case. Even the insurance company adjustor confided to me that the employer was not acting properly in what amounts to harassment of Tom.
Sometimes employers understand Georgia law fully and they use this "return to work trap" to squeeze injured employees. They know that an injured employee who has no money will be more likely to settle for a miminal lump sum out of desparation.
Other employers are not based in Georgia and they don’t know anything about a WC-240, but will take adavantage of the leverage associated with an undocumented return to work.
I think that Tim’s case also illustrates why an injured employee needs legal representation.
Finally, you should be aware that the WC-240 was appropriate in this case because Tom had already been receiving TTD benefits. If your employer has controverted the claim and no TTD benefits have commenced, a different strategy might be necessary.
Many of the calls I get from injured workers are triggered by questions about returning to work. If your doctor has suggested that you are ready to return to work – full duty or light duty, or if your employer is pressuring you to return to work, please do not make any decisions without talking to me or to competent legal counsel.
Filed under Georgia Workers' Compensation, Income benefits, Returning to work, Winning Strategies by
If you are injured on the job, start to miss work, and your employer accepts your Georgia workers’ compensation claim, you become eligible for temporary total disability benefit payments. How does TTD work and how much can you receive? In this video, I discuss the basics about TTD benefits.
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Have you received a light duty return to work? What happens if you try to work but the light duty job is too difficult? What does "light duty" mean anyway? Will your temporary total disability benefits be restarted? Returning to work under a light duty release can be very tricky and you can jeopardize your benefits if you do not handle this process correctly. In this video, I explain how a light duty release is supposed to work and why a WC-240 form is so important.
Filed under Income benefits, Returning to work by
