Work Injury Attorney

If you are injured at work, at your place of work, or in a motor vehicle in the course of your employment, you are entitled to compensation for your injuries. This is true even if you tripped over your own shoelaces or caused the motor vehicle accident.  When you’re injured in the course of your employment, you are entitled to workers compensation benefits, even if your own negligence or carelessness was the cause of your injury.  For workers compensation benefits, we do not have to prove that someone else caused your injury.

Workers compensation benefits include medical benefits, as long as you treat with the medical provider(s) chosen by your employer or their insurance company; temporary disability benefits when the authorized medical provider indicates you are unable to work; and permanency benefits, which are explained in greater detail below.

When Should I Contact a Work Injury Lawyer?

Unfortunately, it’s a risky proposition to assume your employer, your employer’s insurance carrier, and the carrier’s chosen doctors will do everything that is legally required if you’re injured at work. Some will try to send you back to work as soon as possible, with as little care as possible, to minimize their costs for disability and medical payments for you.

However, even if you’re receiving excellent medical care and the appropriate temporary benefits for lost wages, you still need a work injury lawyer to obtain your permanent disability benefits when an injury doesn’t completely heal or an illness isn’t completely cured. At the conclusion of your treatment, if you still have pain, limitation of motion, and/or difficulty engaging in social, recreational, household or work activities as you did before the work injury, you are entitled to an award of partial permanent disability. The fact is, the odds of an employer’s insurance company voluntarily paying a permanency award are very slim.

Consider contacting a work injury lawyer immediately after a work-related injury occurs. Edward P. Shamy, Jr. can guide you through process of reporting and documenting the incident, obtaining proper medical care, and ensuring that you receive all of the temporary and permanent disability benefits to which you are entitled.

What Costs Are Involved When I’m Represented by a Work Injury Lawyer?

The costs are actually a lot lower than you think. There are three cost-related factors to keep in mind:

• We work on a contingency in these cases. That means we’re only paid when you receive compensation.
• Any settlement or award you receive for an injury at work is tax-free.
• Attorney fees for workers’ compensation are capped at 20 percent, not the traditional 33 percent for third-party cases. Most importantly, only a fraction (40 percent) of that fee is paid by you, which means your out-of-pocket cost is only 8 percent of your total settlement. For example, if you receive a permanency award of $20,000, your share of the attorney fee is just $1,600, compared to $6,667 for the same settlement amount in a third-party case.

If you’ve suffered a work-related injury or illness, contact us for a free consultation. Edward P. Shamy, Jr. is a work injury lawyer who can help you understand your rights and receive the medical care and compensation you deserve.