I looked at a very interesting award calculator devised by a Maryland attorney based on his review of thousands of work comp awards in Maryland. It asks the injured worker to put a number from 1 though 10 on the level of pain and interference with activities for their injury,r the average weekly wage, and how long the injured worker was off work.  It does not ask for the injured worker's age. Byron Warnken, the author the website with this calculator, tells me that it is very good at roughly predicting what a client will receive for an award. The link to his...

Injured workers with accepted workers' compensation claims should not be getting bills for medical treatment from  hospitals, doctors, an anesthesiologist, or radiologist.  You know whether you have an accepted claim or not by whether you have received a letter from your self-insured employer or from a third-party administrator that says your claim is accepted.  (An acceptance or denial letter must be sent by the adjuster handling your claim within 30 days of the adjuster receiving a copy of the C-4 Claim for Compensation form you completed when you first went to the clinic or hospital for...

Obtaining appropriate medical treatment for  post-concussive symptoms  from a work accident can be as frustrating as the symptoms of a concussion.  A concussion is the term use to generally describe a head injury that may or may not result in the loss of consciousness.  It is unusual for someone who has a severe blow to the head, such was when a freight elevator door hits the top of the skull,  not to remember or be sure whether they lost consciousness.   The most frustrating thing about concussions is that the CT scan of the brain may be normal, and there...

   What happens when you are injured working for one employer, and you have two jobs and two different employers?  This is called concurrent employment in the Nevada regulations    If you are like most injured workers and you never talk to your claim's adjuster,  you might not know how important your second employment is to your claim.   If your injury disables you temporarily from working both jobs, you might be entitled to temporary total disability benefits (TTD).  Those benefits are 66 2/3 of your average monthly wage.  Unless you ask the...

 If you are wondering how often the hearings or appeals officer rule in favor of insurers or injured workers, here are a few statistics from the Department of Administration Hearings Division that may give you a rough  idea.   These statistics are for the state's fiscal year that runs from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012.  Statewide, there were 10,643 cases scheduled before the five hearings officers in Las Vegas and the two in Carson City.  There were 4,511 cases filed before the six appeals officers in the south, and the three in the north. Claim denial and medical...

For those with accidents occurring after July 1, 2013 through July 1, 2014, the maximum state average monthly wage is $5,290.70.   That figure comes from the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, Employment Security Division.   That figure is the maximum amount that can be used as an injured worker's average monthly wage if the injury occurs between that fiscal year.  The benefits on that average monthly wage of $5,290.70 is 66 2/3, which comes out to be $814.58 per week (count each of the 7 days).  The amount that would be in a monthly...

Injured workers have the right to file an appeal if the claims adjuster does not respond to a written request within 30 days. Attorneys are usually the only ones that know that when the adjuster fails to respond, it is called a de facto denial, and a hearing officer can decide whether the requested benefits can be ordered. What usually happens is that the injured worker who does not have an attorney waits and waits for the adjuster to respond to a request. The request can be for any kind of benefit, such as a request to change doctors or a request for temporary total disability (TTD)...