Injured in an Automobile Accident in North Carolina? We Can Help.

North Carolina Rule 414 – Legislated Unfairness

In 2011, the North Carolina legislature passed a law most commonly referred to as North Carolina Rule of Evidence 414, but also referred to as “Billed versus Paid.”  This rule of evidence has had the disastrous effect of creating absolute unfairness to those injured in automobile accidents in North Carolina.  Rule 414 is an evidentiary rule, with the intent to be only applied to matters that go to trial, but liability insurance companies are insisting it be applied in the settlement/negotiation phase of a personal injury matter.  So, you may ask – why is this such a big deal?

Simply, Rule 414 lets insurance companies make offers based on the amount of medical bill balances, and not on what the actual amount of the bill was before it was paid by the injured party, health insurance, or Medicaid, or Medicare.  Previously, the collateral source rule disallowed any mention of what was paid, or not paid at trial.  So now, if you are injured in an automobile accident in North Carolina, and incur medical bills of $100,000.00, and the health insurance that you pay for out of every paycheck pays 80% of it, the insurance company makes an offer based on $20,000.00, not $100,000.00.  Now, if you do not have any health insurance, the insurance company has to make offers based on the full $100,000.00.  Now, you know why the title of this blog is legislated unfairness.  Why should insurance companies be allowed to benefit from something that you pay for out of every paycheck?  The answer is easy, and quite infuriating actually – the North Carolina legislature let them!

We are waiting for some appellate cases to address this unconstitutional unfairness, but in the interim personal injury attorneys are invaluable in terms of offering strategies, and assisting in negotiating with the insurance companies.  Tippens & Zurosky has knowledgeable, experienced attorneys who can fight for your rights during this often long and difficult automobile accident process.  Call us toll-free at 877-372-3580, or at 704-343-0018, for a free consultation.  Let us help you!

What Can You Do If Your Workers’ Compensation Case Is Denied?

What Do You Mean That’s Not in the Scope of My Employment?

Most employees feel that if they are injured on the job, or injured doing something at the direction of their supervisor that their injury will be one that is accepted by their company’s workers’ compensation carrier, and their medical bills will be paid, and they may get compensated for a permanent injury.  But, that is not necessarily correct.

When you are hurt on the job, your injury must be something that is considered in the “scope of your employment.” Being in the scope of your employment can be defined as something which benefits your employer, even if it is not in your actual job description.  The difference can be quite subtle.  For example, if you are hurt taking a group photograph with your co-employees that is just for the photographer, and not for a work purpose that is not in the scope of your employment.  If you are injured taking a group photograph that will be used in the company marketing material that is in the scope of your employment.  Likewise, if you are a security guard and are hurt stopping a robber that is in the scope of your employment, but if you are a trucker and try to stop a robber and get hurt, the courts of North Carolina have held that is not in the scope of your employment.  Often this distinction is so close that workers’ compensation companies simply choose to deny the injured worker’s claim as a matter of policy, or business practice.

     

If you are injured onthe job in North Carolina, or South Carolina, and your case is denied, Tippens & Zurosky is available to serve your auto accident and workers’ compensation needs.  Tippens & Zurosky has represented people involved in auto accidents, or hurt on the job in North Carolina and South Carolina for nearly twenty years.  Let us answer any of your questions regarding any automobile accident, or work-related injury.  Call us toll free at (877) 372-3580, or 704-343-0018 to schedule a consultation so that we may assist you. 

If you are hurt on the job, do you need to go to the hospital?

The Doctor is In..Dispensable!

If you have a denied workers’ compensation claim in North Carolina, or South Carolina, where your employer is claiming not only that you never reported the injury, but also that it never even happened, you may find yourself in front of a hearing Commissioner telling your side of the story.  Invariably, after you relate to the hearing commissioner, just when and how you got hurt, your employer will march up the stand a whole host of witnesses, saying you did not tell them a thing about being hurt!  What is the one thing that usually breaks the standoff?  Medical evidence.

If you are hurt on the job, go to the hospital, or your doctor as soon as possible!  Tell the hospital, or doctor that you got hurt at work.  What often breaks the tie in the hearing commissioner’s eyes, is what a person told the medical providers right after the accident.  So, if they see you saw the doctor, literally right after you testified you got hurt, and told the doctor what you just testified to, it gives you credibility, and establishes when and how you got hurt.  Often, the doctor’s notes can be the workers’ compensation claimant’s biggest ally in winning their case.

Injured workers are usually in total disbelief that their employer would try and deny their claim.  But, many employers are concerned about the “high cost” of workers’ compensation insurance premiums, and are going to do their best to have no claims filed, even to their employees’ detriment.  Also, many managers’ compensation structure is based on the amount of lost time accidents that occur on their watch.  An employee getting hurt in this case literally takes money out of their pocket.  Tippens & Zurosky has knowledgeable, experienced attorneys who can fight for your rights during this often long and difficult workers' compensation process.  Call us toll-free at 877-372-3580, or at 704-343-0018, for a free consultation.  Let us help you!

Tips To Avoid Back To School Auto Accidents

Back to School Time is Just Around the Corner

After what probably seemed like a way too short summer of enjoying vacation time, relaxing, and the delightful combination of the water and sun, at the end of August most of North Carolina and South Carolina returns back to school.  For those folks with children, instead of maybe taking time in the morning to have a little more coffee, it is off to drop the kids at school, rush to work, and then rush out for the after school routine.   Drivers without children may also be learning new routines as they could have moved their residence, or job over the summer.  So, the long and short of it – every driver will be dealing with new traffic patterns, but old frustrations!

The best thing to do is get out of the house earlier than normal to avoid rushing carelessly and be on the bad side of a wrong driving decision that results in you being responsible for an automobile accident.  Also, be aware of school buses as both North Carolina and South Carolina law puts heavy points on your drivers’ license if you pass a stopped school bus with its signal lights flashing and caution arm engaged.  Be aware of any school bus stops in your neighborhood, and on your way to work, and remind yourself each morning to proceed with great care when passing them to make sure the kids get on their bus safely, and you get where you are going without an unwanted ticket, or tragedy.

On the road with you on your commute to work, or school will be new drivers that just got their licenses, drivers who have moved from other states, towns, or even countries, and even drivers travelling in a new part of town.  Make sure you drive with caution and stay alert to drivers who may make sudden starts, or stops due to their not knowing their route of travel.  It is always nice to let somebody in who is trying to merge!  So go ahead, and let in that drive because at some point you will need someone to repay that favor to you.  It is an exciting time of year filled with lots of new experiences, and driving safely and being courtesy will make it that much more enjoyable!

The attorneys of Tippens & Zurosky wish you the best for a happy and prosperous new school year. 

Tippens & Zurosky has represented people involved in auto accidents in North Carolina and South Carolina for nearly twenty years.  Let us answer any of your questions regarding any automobile accident.  Call us toll free at (877) 372-3580, or 704-343-0018 to schedule a consultation so that we may assist you. 

Hurt On The Job By A Third Party? What Are Your Rights?

If you are injured in an accident on the job in North Carolina or South Carolina, and that injury is caused by a third party, your company’s workers’ compensation insurance company is not relieved of its obligations under the law.  If you are hurt on the job by a third party, your company’s workers’ compensation insurance company still must provide medical care, weekly benefits if you are written out of work, and a settlement if you have a permanent injury, scarring or disfigurement, or other impairment.  Once your workers’ compensation case is concluded, you can then seek compensation from the third party that hit you.

For example, if you are working inside your company building and a third party drives through the building and strikes you causing you to suffer a broken leg, your company’s workers’ compensation insurance company must step in first to take care of you.  When your workers’ compensation case is concluded you would go after the third party driver’s liability insurance company.  But, keep in mind, your company’s workers’ compensation company is given a lien by both North Carolina and South Carolina law to recover from the third party liability insurance company for what they paid out on you, the injured worker’s behalf. Navigating this scenario can be very confusing, and intimidating.

Tippens & Zurosky is available to serve both your auto accident and workers’ compensation needs, and can help you if you have been injured on the job by a third party.  Tippens & Zurosky has represented people involved in auto accidents, or hurt on the job in North Carolina and South Carolina for nearly twenty years.  Let us answer any of your questions regarding any automobile accident, or work-related injury.  Call us toll free at (877) 372-3580, or 704-343-0018 to schedule a consultation so that we may assist you. 

Injured At Work Due to a Co-Workers Joke? You May Have a Case.

The Joke Was On You At Work – Can You Recover If You Got Injured?

Since the time human beings have been on the planet, and been engaged in some sort of employment, there have always been those instances where one co-worker for whatever reason decides to play a joke on another co-worker.  The examples are many from the simple pulling out the chair in the meeting room as the person goes to sit down, to the complicated booby trap in the storage facility, to the knocking over of the co-worker occupied portable toilet at the construction site.  But, what happens if you are that innocent co-worker and get injured in the process?

The laws of both North Carolina and South Carolina have generally held that the innocent victim who gets injured by this “horseplay” has a compensable workers’compensation case.  The theory behind holding these cases as compensable is that being the subject of workplace “horseplay” is a recognized hazard of employment.  Of note, the courts of both states have frowned on the aggressor of the “horseplay” who injures himself in failed “horseplay” on another in certain circumstances.

If you have been injured in an automobile accident, or hurt on the job by “horseplay,” please reach out to our firm so we can put our years of experience to work for you.  Tippens & Zurosky has knowledgeable, experienced attorneys who can fight for your rights if you have been injured on the job, or in an automobile accident in North Carolina, or South Carolina.  Call us toll-free at 877-372-3580, or at 704-343-0018, for a free consultation.  Let us help you!

How Does a Drug Test Affect a Workers’ Compensation Claim?

They Did Inhale – How a Positive Drug Test Affects a Workers’ Compensation Claim

In North Carolina, a workers’ compensation case can be denied if the on the job injury was caused by being under the influence of an intoxicating substance.  However, there are several factors to consider when a worker has a positive drug test.  An injured worker’s case cannot be denied if that intoxicating substance was provided, or supplied by the employer, or his agent in a supervisory capacity to the employee.  A classic example of this would be attending a work function where it is expected and enforced that alcohol be consumed to entertain potential clients, or other business contacts, and the worker then gets hurt due to his company supplying alcohol.

The workers’ compensation insurance company, or self-insured company also has to show that the worker was intoxicated, which is not necessarily so cut and dry.  For example, a positive drug test for marijuana, cocaine, and other drugs does not indicate a level of impairment like an alcohol blood test does.  Marijuana and cocaine can stay in a person’s system for days, or weeks after the drug was used.  There is no level of “stonedness” that can be measured.

Additionally, the workers’ compensation insurance company, or self-insured company must show any intoxication proximately caused the work injury.  So, if there is a positive drug test for cocaine, and the worker is injured when an automobile driven by a unrelated third-party crashes into the work vehicle the worker is a passenger in – the workers’ compensation insurance company will have an extremely difficult time proving that any intoxication was the proximate cause of the work accident.  However, even in the set of facts above workers’ compensation benefits are often denied based on the drug test alone.  

If you have been injured on the job, and had your workers’ compensation case denied for a positive drug test, please reach out to our firm so we can put our years of experience to work for you.  Tippens & Zurosky has knowledgeable, experienced attorneys who can fight for your rights if you have been injured on the job, or in an automobile accident in North Carolina, or South Carolina.  Call us toll-free at 877-372-3580, or at 704-343-0018, for a free consultation.  Let us help you!