If they are applying for workers’ compensation benefits, applicants will no doubt have plenty of questions about the process.
The first thing that anyone who has been involved in a workplace accident should do is speak to an experienced Los Angeles workers’ compensation attorney about their rights and the coverage that they may be entitled to. The reason an LA workers’ compensation lawyer should be consulted, although it is not required, is because the workers’ compensation system is very adversarial, which means that, if they want to recover benefits, then there is going to be an attorney for the insurance company paying the benefits working hard to keep the benefit payouts to a minimum. This is not because the attorney for the other side doesn’t believe that a valid injury was sustained, but because insurance is a business, and in business, it’s all about the bottom line.
Even before they apply for workers’ compensation benefits coverage, the accident victim can expect to get a lot of phone calls and be asked a lot of questions regarding the injury and how it was sustained. Make no mistake about it, an accident victim injured on the job is never under any requirement to answer these questions or to make any comments relating to the injury. If questions are posed, they should remain unanswered and the person asking the questions referred to the victim’s legal counsel.
Denials of applications for benefits are fairly common, even when they come from individuals with real injuries that were actually sustained on the job. If an application for benefits is denied, it isn’t necessarily the end of the road. The workers’ compensation system has an appeals process that applicants denied for coverage can use to continue to pursue the benefits they are entitled to.
For a more detailed explanation of what accident victims can expect from the workers’ compensation system, an LA workers’ compensation lawyer like Tony Adderley should be consulted as quickly as possible.