#214 Georgia Workers' Compensation Lawyer - What Happens to Your Work Injury When You Don't Get Better?

So what happens with your work injury if you don't get better? Hello. My name is Ty Wilson. I'm a Georgia workers compensation attorney, practicing law in the state of Georgia. And our topic for today is what happens if you don't get better. We have several claims where workers were working very physical, heavy construction like jobs, got injured and cannot return back to that form of work. And that is quite a difficult thing for someone, especially if they've worked in a specialized field for an extended period of time. A lot of times. The first questions or responses we hear is who's going to hire somebody in their 50s who's been doing such and such for 30 years? And now I can't come back to that line of work. And that is actually a very good question. Regardless, the workers compensation system will not continue to pay you forever. And so there are things that you should consider doing that would be in your best interest. But it does get you out of the workers compensation system. Most of my clients are very happy to get out of the workers compensation system as they're very perturbed of being controlled. They receive their check one week on a Saturday, next week, it comes maybe the next Wednesday. And now it's like a week and a half. And there's a lot of sportsmanship with these checks. And of course, the insurance company says, Well, it's the postal service. Well, we've just received notice that the postal service will be delivering slower. So the question is, are we in for a lot more of that? Well, those are questions and answers to be determined at another time. But the reality is the doctors can only do so much. And once they get to where they don't believe they can help you, they're going to say, I'm sorry, you're as good as you're going to get. I believe you're at maximum medical improvement. Now, saying that does not mean that is the end of your care. It certainly implies that that is the end of your care. However, a lot of it depends upon the doctor, who is the doctor treating you? And is there someone who may be a better fit for your type of injury? A specialist in a different area depending upon the body part injured. However, if you have several doctors who have said, MMI. You're looking at a situation where then, yes, they are saying you have benefited as much as you're going to benefit through medicine. They don't believe there's anything medically speaking that they can do to improve your condition. And so you are at maximum medical improvement. And that just means that they don't think there's anything else they can do. They may keep you comfortable. They may send you to pain management, which will basically mask the pain and prevent you from feeling the discomfort that you feel. But it's not so much to get better and get back to work. And so once you're at that point where you're medically not improving, and there's nothing that the doctor can see that he thinks he can improve your condition. The question is, is there another doctor? If not, it may be the time to think about closing out your case and settling. If you're getting checks, they're once again not going to pay you forever. First of all, claim is typically 400 weeks. Unless there's a light duty restriction in what's called a WC 104 file, they can knock it down to 350 weeks. They can also knock down how much you're being paid if you're at the maximum rate after one year through what's called a change of condition, or WC 104. CALL US ►  912-208-2992TEXT US ► 912-233-1100EMAIL US ► [email protected] •  Website•  Facebook•  Pinterest