Workers' Compensation Attorney

Please spread the word that I am also writing a Spanish blog now, accessible from my website. As with my English blog posts, I  write my own articles unless I’m featuring a guest author.  (Yes, my legal assistant does need to help me with translation and grammar.)  My Spanish posts will focus on the  needs , problems, and solutions for the Spanish-speaking injured worker in Nevada.  Email me any topics about the claims process or Nevada work comp law that you think particularly affect Latino workers in our state.

Gracias.

Employers who comply with Nevada law by purchasing workers’ compensation insurance are protected from lawsuits for personal injuries brought by injured workers.  The injured worker’s exclusive remedy when the accident is work-related is to seek workers’ compensation benefits by following the procedures in the Nevada Industrial Insurance Act (NRS Chapter 616).  Co-workers are also protected from personal injury lawsuits unless the injured worker can show that the co-worker intentional caused the injury.  In Nevada, subcontractors and independent contractors  who negligently cause injury to a worker on the same job site, may legally be considered co-workers also, thereby making them also immune from personal injury liability.

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Nevada employees whose work-related accident or occupational illness occurs after 7/1/15 are entitled to receive the lesser of 2/3 of their actual average monthly, or 2/3 of the state maximum average monthly wage of $5,426.25.   If the injured worker was making more than the state maximum, she is only entitled to receive 2/3 of the state maximum.  That means that if the injured worker is off work due to the injury for a month, or her employer does not have light duty work within the doctor’s restrictions, she will receive $3,617.50 in compensation benefits that month.   The usual 14-day payment will be $1,663.76.  Each day in the pay period is counted, including Saturdays and Sundays, when calculating compensation benefits.  The daily rate under the new maximum average monthly wage is $118.84.  Click here for more information on how the state decides what the maximum will be each fiscal year.

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Sterling Education Services provides educational seminars all over the country for several fields of law, including workers compensation. On August 19, 2015, Sterling Education is hosing their 13th Annual Advanced Workers’ Compensation forum at the Embassy Suites in Las Vegas, Nevada. Each year, this forum proves to be an exceptional opportunity for all professionals involved in workers compensation including attorneys, benefit personnel, vocational rehabilitation counselors, and risk managers. In addition to the valuable information to be learned at the seminar, it also qualifies for several Continuing Education Credits,  such as Nevada and California CLE, Nevada Insurance, HR Certification Institute, ABIH, CSP, PCAE, CRCC, CDMS, and CCMC.
Presentations will be held from 8:30-4:30 by several Las Vegas workers compensation attorneys. I am scheduled to present a wide array of topics regarding representing special injured workers, including police and firefighters, death benefits, stress claimants, and permanent total disability claimants.
The cost to register for this seminar is $349 per person. However, you can save $30 if you take advantage of early registration before July 8, and by using discount code FLD50 you can save an additional $50 during early or normal registration. To register now, visit Sterling Education’s registration page.

The 78th session of the Nevada legislature closed last night with a close call for Nevada’s most severely injured workers.   The self-insured employers’ lobbyist tried a last minute attack on how  permanent partial disability awards are calculated by pushing for adoption of the 6th edition of the AMA Guides to Evaluation of Permanent Impairment.  Changing from the AMA Guides 5th edition to the 6th edition would have reduced many awards by significant amounts of money, particularly spinal injury awards.  Earlier in the legislative session the self-insured employers had tried  to pass a law  calling for adoption of the 6th edition.  However, the self-insureds were unprepared for a strong opposition from attorneys who represent injured workers, the Nevada Justice Association, rating doctors, and unions.  Many  people devoted long hours toward defeating proposed legislation that would negatively impact injured workers.

I will be writing more about the specific legislative changes to Nevada workers’ compensation law.  For now, I want to thank those injured workers who testified at legislative committee hearings and who provided statements very quickly to be forwarded to legislators who were voting on amendments to the law.

Traumatic brain injuries that happen at work are almost always caused by a fall from a ladder, the roof of a building, the top of a truck, scaffolding, or on a construction site.   The injured worker may or may not lose consciousness immediately following the accident, and there are usually other physical injuries such as spinal fractures and broken bones in addition to a skull fracture or bleeding in the brain.  The injured worker is usually taken by ambulance to the nearest emergency room at a hospital where the trauma team works to stabilize the patient and assess the brain injury.  During this time, blood work is taken to determine whether there is alcohol or illegal drugs in the patient’s system that could affect treatment.  The presence of alcohol or drugs could also be used to deny an otherwise legitimate workers’ compensation claim.

Families of the patient are ordinarily too shocked to do much other than wait for bits of information to trickle to them from nurses or doctors treating the patient.  If the patient is placed on a ventilator in a medically induced coma, the family’s sole concern at this point is whether the loved one will survive, and if so, what will be the quality of life given the brain injury.   The most frustrating thing for family, even if they are able to be at the hospital for hours each day, is getting information about the extent of the injury and what to expect.

My recommendation for the family is to talk to the hospital social worker to get information on who the workers’ compensation insurer is and the name of the adjuster assigned to the case.  (more…)

Following every visit to your authorized treating doctor, be sure to ask the doctor or his assistant for a copy of the doctor’s physician progress report.  There is a DIR-approved form that most doctors use, although some have modified the form to include their office address, phone number, and have slightly different boxes for slightly different information.  The physician progress report is sent by the doctor’s office to your adjuster following each visit and tells the adjuster what further treatment is planned, what the work restrictions are for the next month, or whether the doctor has taken you off work completely.  This form also tells the adjuster-and you, if you make sure you get a copy-whether the doctor has released you from care, and if so, whether the doctor thinks you have a ratable impairment.  The last PPR also should state whether you are released full duty or have permanent work restrictions.  If the doctor writes nothing in the box for the date of your next office visit, or writes PRN (meaning, “as needed”), it means that the doctor has released you from his or her care, and that the adjuster will then be closing your claim for medical benefits.

As some doctors aren’t straightforward with their workers’ compensation patients, and avoid potential arguments with the patient by not telling them they are released form care full duty, it is essential that you get and read the PPR after every visit and before you leave the doctor’s office.  (more…)

Fire fighters have a law entitling them to workers’ compensation benefits under a law written especially for fire fighters.  NRS 617.453 provides for a rebuttable presumption that a cancer is work-related for fire fighters with 5 years or more of full-time, continuous employment if the   person was exposed to a known carcinogen and the carcinogen is associated with the disabling cancer.  This law also gives examples of known carcinogens and the disabling cancers that are linked to those carcinogens.  The list of known carcinogens and the disabling cancers that are associated with them is not an exhaustive list, however.  A fire fighter may offer evidence that another substance is a known carcinogen now, or that other types of cancers are also associated with a particular known carcinogen.

Unlike the heart and lung laws that provide for workers’ compensation benefits for fire fighters, the cancer law does not provide for a conclusive presumption that cancer is work-related.  The employer of a fire fighter may offer proof that the cancer was caused by something other than exposure on the job to a carcinogen. Fortunately, there are new studies that are providing more data regarding carcinogens and the specific cancers caused by exposures.   On April 15, 2015, the American Journal of Industrial Medicine, published “Risk of Cancer Among Firefighters in California, 1988-2007”.  This study of almost 20 years of data is significant because it has information on cancer risk to modern building materials and the burning of plastics in home appliances, furniture and electronic, even when a fire fighter is wearing a self-contained breathing apparatus.

As you know, I offer a free review of your Nevada  rating evaluation on your workers’ compensation claim if you fax it to me with what you think might be wrong with the rating. My fax number is (702) 731-9097.  Additionally, I will be posting one of my readers’ questions regarding permanent partial disability awards each month for all my readers with my response. Here’s this month’s question:

Q:  I think I need more treatment, but the adjuster scheduled me for a rating exam. Should I go?

A:  Yes, you should attend the rating exam even if you think you need more medical treatment.  However, you should also file an appeal of the letter the adjuster sent you telling you that your claim is closed and that you are being scheduled for a PPD exam.  The rating examiner might agree with you that you really need more diagnostic studies or clearly need more medical treatment.  If that happens, the adjuster is likely to send you back to your treating doctor, or if you have requested (in writing) that the adjuster schedule you with someone else, send you to another doctor for another opinion.  If you don’t attend, and you don’t get another doctor to support your thinking you need more treatment, the adjuster will close your claim without an award, and you will have to appeal and pay for one yourself.  Just because you attend the rating doesn’t mean you agree that you don’t need more medical care.

Most injured workers who hire attorneys do so because they are not satisfied with the medical care they are getting for their work injury. Although I am limited by current law to selecting medical providers on a particular insurer’s provider list, I consider it a very important part of my job to make sure that my clients are getting the best possible medical care. I try to personally meet orthopedic physicians, neurosurgeons, psychologists, physiatrists, pain management doctors, and physical therapists. I met another physical therapist this week to treat my own sore shoulder and neck after getting bucked off my horse two weeks ago.

Jeff Deets of OrthoSport was recommended to me by my international weight lifting friend, Pat “Buff” Mendes. Elite athletes are often a great source of information about good doctors and therapists. When I told Pat that my injury was causing a lot of painful spasms in my shoulder and upper back, he recommended that I see Jeff Deets for some dry needling. That initial session with Jeff did get the spasming reduced, and it was followed by a two-hour session last night of more traditional therapies to get greater range of motion in my neck and shoulder.

I was very impressed with Jeff’s knowledge and hands-on approach to all the patients I saw in therapy at his facility. Even when the personable, and high-energy assistants were helping patients, Jeff was closely observing and directing care. It is my experience that with many of the larger physical therapy facilities, the therapy is often delegated completely to assistants without much supervision by an actual physical therapist. My observations at OrthoSport were different. Their website is www.orthosportlasvegas.com.