Workers’ Compensation Attorneys Help You Qualify for Benefits
Striving to ensure your claim’s acceptance
When you are injured at work, you must report it to your employer and file a claim before you can receive workers’ compensation benefits. A claims administrator decides whether to accept or deny your claim. At Invictus Law, P.C., we assist injured workers with increasing the odds of acceptance for your claim. And, if a claims administrator has already denied your initial claim, we represent you in challenging that denial. We serve the California communities of Orange, San Bernardino and Riverside counties.
Disability benefits can improve your financial situation while you recover
The types of workers’ compensation benefits in California include:
- Medical care. Your employer pays for medical treatment to help you recover and return to work.
- Temporary disability benefits. When your injury prohibits you from performing your usual work, you can receive payments to compensate for lost wages while you recover.
- Permanent disability benefits. If your injury prevents you from a complete recovery, you can receive payments for the long term.
- Supplemental job displacement benefits. You can receive a voucher to cover the costs of vocational training or enhancement if you cannot get better, cannot do your usual work and don’t return to work for your employer.
- Death benefits. Families can receive payments when a loved one has died as a result of a job-related accident or illness.
Clients often ask us about what they can do if their benefits end or are denied. Our workers’ compensation attorneys explain the workers’ compensation process to you in easy-to-understand language, so you understand the entire process.
Using a rating schedule to determine permanent disability
Using guidelines from the American Medical Association, a doctor who serves as your medical evaluator decides whether your illness or injury qualifies for permanent disability. This doctor writes a report and assigns a rating for each body part. The ratings range between 0 and 100 percent, with 0 percent meaning no reduction of earning ability and 100 percent meaning permanent disability. The rating determines the number of weeks for which you could receive compensation. If your injury partially limits the kind of work you can do, you can receive permanent partial disability payments. If your injury renders you unable to work at all and to earn a living, you can receive permanent total disability payments.
Temporary benefits apply
If you can’t do your usual job while you’re recovering, you can receive temporary disability benefits. If you can’t work at all, you receive temporary total disability benefits. If you can do some work, but the work earns you less money than the work you performed before your injury or illness, you receive partial disability benefits.
Qualification for benefits begins with filing the DWC 1 form
You must report your injury or illness to your employer within one year, and your employer must give you the DWC 1 claim form within one day of receiving your report. This form begins the process. Without it, you cannot receive workers’ compensation benefits. To further qualify for them, your injury or illness must have been caused by your job.
If your employer does not carry workers’ compensation insurance, you are not eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. But you may be eligible for other benefits, such as Social Security Disability, for which you may also qualify even if your employer does carry workers’ compensation insurance and you receive workers’ compensation benefits.
Our attorneys can help you fully understand the workers’ compensation requirements needed to ensure a benefit payout. We can also hold another party accountable by filing a third-party liability claim if that other person’s negligence caused your injury.
Independent contractors and volunteers do not qualify for workers’ compensation benefits. Also, if your employer laid you off or terminated you prior to your injury, you may not be eligible for benefits. Other exemptions include accidents caused by your use of drugs or alcohol, your commission of a felony, an argument with another worker that you caused or a suicide attempt.
Find out if you qualify for workers’ compensation benefits in a free initial consultation
Our attorneys at Invictus Law, P.C. help injured workers get compensation while they recover from work-related injuries. Take advantage of a risk-free, complimentary consultation to discuss your situation with us. Call us at 949-287-5711 or use our online contact form to set up an appointment. We offer flexible scheduling, and you can call us 24-7.
