12-28-2020; PART TWO--Trying to make sense of COVID -19 Vaccinations--Ending the Great Pandemic of 2020; Comments from Gene to Another IL WC Blogger and more

Synopsis: PART TWO--Trying to Make Sense of Covid-19 Vaccinations—Ending the Great Pandemic of 2020. Last Blog of 2020!!!

Editor’s comment: More Simple Common Sense Thoughts From Gene Keefe for U.S. Risk/HR managers, claims handlers and all our readers of the KCB&A Update.

1. Please note Dr. Fauci and everyone in the world of “pandemic-a” are sure we can live with masks and gloves and washing our hands for years to come if we don’t buy into the vaccines.

2. There are some folks that I can only characterize as “anti-vaxxers” who are worried if you get a shot, you might turn into the Hulk, Frankenstein or a werewolf. There is no evidence anywhere that indicates your genes or DNA will change if you get the shots.

3. Learn about “Operation Warp Speed.” For all of our readers, we can and will attack this virus and end the Great Pandemic of 2020, I am hoping by no later than April Fool’s Day.

4. Details on OWS or Operation Warp Speed are online at https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/explaining-operation-warp-speed/index.html

5. Our government is spending literally 10’s of Billions to get safe vaccines out to every American who will use one. I salute my sister Ellen who already got the first vaccine shot and is going to get the next in about three weeks. Yes, her arm was sore and she got over it!!!

6. Current U.S. population is about 328M. We have almost 19M cases of Covid-19 and about 320K deaths. Americans have to get together, like we did after we were attacked at Pearl Harbor and sign up and stop this craziness. Get two shots!!!

7. We need every American to join in Operation Warp Speed to get the word out to family and friends—everyone needs to get the vaccine as soon as it is available to you.

8. I am sure from reading about thousands of test cases--if you get the vaccine, you are going to be immune at a 19 out of 20 rate at least. Thousands of test cases were analyzed and considered.

9. Please expect lots of government officials and other folks in the public eye to get the vaccination. Lots of folks—that I call “watchers” may wait a month to be “safe” and insure they aren’t the first—that is fine but plan for the first shot in a month and get it!!

10. I told my readers: “Immune” means you can’t get Covid-19 from others and they can’t get it from you. I want to apologize and confirm I have been advised by Scott G, one of my great readers that we need to keep the masks and gloves and washing stuff until the Feds tell us to stop. Someone in the medical industry is going to give us the “all clear” and we need to wait and listen for it!

11. You should strongly encourage EVERYONE in your workforce to get the shots, so all of your co-workers can’t get the virus.

12. You aren’t getting COVID-19 bugs injected into you if you get the vaccine—you are getting a very complex drug to kill and make you immune from the COVID-19 bug.

13. COVID-19 vaccines will not cause you to test positive on COVID-19 viral tests, which are used to see if you have a current infection.

14. If your body develops an immune response, which is the goal of vaccination, there is a possibility you may test positive on some antibody tests—you want to test positive for antibodies! Antibody tests indicate you had a previous infection and that you may have some level of protection against the virus.

15. Due to the severe health risks associated with COVID-19 and the fact that re-infection with COVID-19 is possible, people may be advised to get the COVID-19 vaccine even if they have been sick and treated for COVID-19 before. At this time, experts do not know how long someone is protected from getting sick again after recovering from a bout with COVID-19. The immunity someone gains from having an infection, called natural immunity, varies from person to person. Some early evidence suggests natural immunity may not last very long. The CDC won’t know how long immunity produced by vaccination lasts until there is more data on how well it works. Until then, they are recommending EVERYONE 16 and over get the shot. (Pregnant ladies are supposed to talk to your doctor first).

16. Why two shots? Well, after the first shot, the scientists feel you are safe from Covid-19 in a week or so but the second shot greatly improves your lasting immunity. Yes, lots of folks skip the second shot which leaves them less safe. Don’t take a chance and be in the headlines. Get both shots and be super-safe!

17. About 15% of folks experience soreness, fatigue, mild issues the day after the shots. Consider planning for a day off—or get the injection on a Friday!

Please, please get on this. We have to stop the craziness in Washington and around the globe. If we don’t get together, the concept of herd immunity may take us into 2023 or 2024 with masks and gloves and a sick and sorry economy.

Can We Force or Fire a Worker to Insure They Get the Shots?

I told you last time and I am telling you again, as a veteran lawyer, I vote no. If you force or fire workers who won’t get the shots, they can

• File an EEOC or IDHR beef against your company.

• Directly sue in Circuit Court In Illinois or

• Go through the EEOC or IDHR process that may result in a “right to sue” letter from the Feds or State.

If your company ends up in court in a fight over this issue, one of the unusual aspects of such litigation is, if Claimant is awarded a couple of bucks, you can owe all of their attorney’s fees and costs. Plaintiff attorney’s fees in such claims can be well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. For that reason and various other reasons, I don’t feel comfortable telling clients and potential clients it is a good idea to fight with their workers to force them to be vaccinated.

The vaccines are coming soon to a hospital or drug store near you. Sign up yourself. Put up signs or lapel pins or whatever you have to do to let the “watchers” know you got the shots and you are still tough and fair in handling your WC claims.

Remember if you don’t get the shot, you can eat outside in the cold and crab about the sanctity of your DNA and whatever. I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Please post them on our award-winning blog.

Synopsis: Gene’s Comments on Another IL WC Great Blogger’s Concepts for The Trade.

Editor’s comment: A reader recently sent Attorney Mike Helfand’s blog from a year ago this coming week. Mike is a solid and devoted advocate for injured workers. I wanted to share my thoughts on some of his concepts for you. Woodruff, Johnson & Evans is also doing a great blog and is a solid source for everyone on all sides to read.

1. Illinois work comp is a no fault law. You don’t have to show anyone was negligent if you get hurt on the job. Gene’s thoughts—there are cases where your workers can’t figure out how they got injured—that may result in denial. There are also cases where the workers unreasonably endanger themselves, resulting in denial. While I agree with Mike for the most part, the burden remains with the IL worker to document a work-related event.

2. It’s a felony for an employer not to have workers comp insurance if they do business in Illinois and have employees. Gene’s thoughts—please memorize this statement. Mike is completely accurate. There are criminal charges and massive fines for operating a company in Illinois without WC insurance coverage. If you need help or want to discuss, send a reply.

3. You are eligible for work comp the moment you start working. Gene’s thoughts—Mike is right, I have one client who got mad about a short-termer who filed a claim, it isn’t a defense that the worker has only been around for a short time. Please don’t shoot the messenger!

4. If you need medical treatment, 100% of your care needs to be paid for. No co-pays or out of pocket expenses. Gene’s thoughts—some day the business community in IL may want to revisit this but right now, Mike’s right.

5. You get to choose your own doctor for treatment. Gene’s thoughts—Mike’s right, “ish.” I suggest all the IL claims adjusters who read this consider UR and IME’s to slow the unfettered level of medical care in some IL WC claims. I have one claim where Claimant got “trigger point” shots—what a complete hoot… Please UR requests for trigger point shots and discograms and medial branch blocks and other medical silliness.

6. Lawyer fees in almost every case cannot exceed 20% of what is recovered for you. Gene’s thoughts—yep.

7. Almost every case is worth something. Gene’s thoughts, as I said above, someday IL WC has to have a filing fee or something to slow the idea of having Claimant lawyers file completely hogwash claims and then try to get high nuisance value for baseless stuff.

8. What your case is worth depends on how severe your injury is, the treatment you have, your wages, your recovery, your age, the future treatment you might need and many other things. Gene’s thoughts—Mike is right a year ago and right now.

9. Once you settle, you typically lose your right to more medical care. Gene’s thoughts--That is how IL WC works. Mike is again correct.

10. If you go to trial and win, you get medical benefits as relates to that injury for life. Gene’s thoughts—see number 9 above.

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Please post them on our award-winning blog.

12-14-2020; Trying to Make Sense of COVID -19 Vaccinations--Ending the Great Pandemic of 2020; IL WC Subro Reversal in "Litigation Hellhole" to Protect and Preserve Subro Concept and more

Synopsis: Trying to Make Sense of Covid-19 Vaccinations—Ending the Great Pandemic of 2020.

Editor’s comment: A Dozen Simple Common Sense Thoughts for U.S. Risk/HR managers, claims handlers and all our readers of the KCB&A Update.

1. If you get the vaccine, you are going to be immune at a 19 out of 20 rate at least. Thousands of test cases were analyzed and considered.

2. Please expect lots of government officials and other folks in the public eye to get the vaccination. Lots of folks may wait a month to be “safe” and insure they aren’t the first—that is fine but plan for the first shot in a month and get it!!

3. “Immune” means you can’t get Covid-19 from others and they can’t get it from you! You need to continue precautions for a week or two after getting the first shot.

4. You should strongly encourage EVERYONE in your workforce to get the shots, so all of your co-workers can’t get the virus and they can’t give it to others.

5. The United States has already had 16M+ cases of COVID-19 with approximately 300K deaths—we can end this in about 60-90 days if we can, as a country, get folks to use these very-effective vaccines.

6. You aren’t getting COVID-19 bugs injected into you if you get the vaccine—you are getting a very complex drug to kill and make you immune from the COVID-19 bug.

7. COVID-19 vaccines will not cause you to test positive on COVID-19 viral tests, which are used to see if you have a current infection.

8. If your body develops an immune response, which is the goal of vaccination, there is a possibility you may test positive on some antibody tests—you want to test positive for antibodies! Antibody tests indicate you had a previous infection and that you may have some level of protection against the virus.

9. Due to the severe health risks associated with COVID-19 and the fact that re-infection with COVID-19 is possible, people may be advised to get the COVID-19 vaccine even if they have been sick and treated for COVID-19 before. At this time, experts do not know how long someone is protected from getting sick again after recovering from a bout with COVID-19. The immunity someone gains from having an infection, called natural immunity, varies from person to person. Some early evidence suggests natural immunity may not last very long. The CDC won’t know how long immunity produced by vaccination lasts until there is more data on how well it works. Until then, they are recommending EVERYONE 16 and over get the shot. (Pregnant ladies are supposed to talk to your doctor first).

10. Receiving this mRNA vaccine will not alter your DNA—if you are being told that, the person saying it has no idea what they are talking about. Same for claiming there are “microchips” in the vaccine—what a hoot!!!

11. Why two shots? Well, after the first shot, the scientists feel you are safe from Covid-19 in a week or so but the second shot greatly improves your lasting immunity. Yes, lots of folks skip the second shot which leaves them less safe. Don’t take a chance and be in the headlines. Get both shots and be super-safe!

12. About 15% of folks experience soreness, fatigue, mild issues the day after the shots. Consider planning for a day off—or get the injection on a Friday!

My vote is every U.S. employer should engage in a program to encourage and cajole and inspire your workers to get the shots. Pay for the cost of the medicines if you have to. Bring vaccines and administering nurses or other medical personnel to your work places to make it easy on your workers. Have the company president and top managers get the shot to encourage others. Go back in a couple of weeks to encourage those who aren’t sure or want to wait.

Can We Force or Fire a Worker to Insure They Get the Shots?

As a veteran lawyer, I vote no. If you force or fire workers who won’t get the shots, they can

• File an EEOC or IDHR beef against your company.

• Directly sue in Circuit Court In Illinois or

• Go through the EEOC or IDHR process that may result in a “right to sue” letter from the Feds or State.

If your company ends up in court in a fight over this issue, one of the unusual aspects of such litigation is, if Claimant is awarded a couple of bucks, you can owe all of their attorney’s fees and costs. Plaintiff attorney’s fees in such claims can be well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. For that reason and various other reasons, I don’t feel comfortable telling clients and potential clients it is a good idea to fight with your workers to force them to be vaccinated.

For employees less likely to become infected or to infect others, employers should consider using the “carrot” approach rather than the “stick” approach. Such workers can and should be incentivized to be vaccinated as soon as possible. Suggested incentives can take the form of a reduction in health insurance premiums, cash bonus, time off work or something else of value to them. It may also be a good idea for your managers to let these employees know that, eventually, all of its workers may be required to be vaccinated to insure a safe and Covid-free workplace. For those employees who initially refuse the vaccine, employers should know passage of just a few weeks or a month will likely help so they can watch how public figures and friends react following inoculation. Once these recalcitrant employees see that their vaccinated co-workers, friends, and the vast majority of Americans (including former Presidents and their sports and entertainment idols) have suffered no significant ill-effects from the vaccine, then many of them will agree to be vaccinated. Of course, there may always be some employees who still refuse. It is a tough call to fire such workers for the reasons above—I vote no.

Please Learn About and Use V-SAFE

V-SAFE is a smartphone-based tool that uses text messaging and web surveys to provide personalized health check-ins after you receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Through V-SAFE, you can quickly tell CDC if you have any side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Depending on your answers, someone from CDC may call to check on you and get more information. Please register—for more info, go to this safe link: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/vsafe.html

Does the Employer Have WC Liability for Sickness/Injury Claims As a Result of the Shots?

As I have advised in the past, Illinois has an odd provision in our OccDisease Act that may mandate WC/OD coverage for sicknesses coming from the injections. Other states don’t appear to have such legislation.

In my view, I recommend you and your company try to be nice and pay for what you can to avoid creating an unnecessary WC/OD fight over what should be no more than a day or two of lost time. It might be a bigger issue if the worker has an unexpected allergic reaction to the injections—that is going to be hard to predict. But if we all take a responsible approach to the end of the pandemic, we are going to be asked to pay claims that technically might be defended. I feel many hearing officers across the U.S. are going to want employers to take care of their workers and I join with them to ask you to do so.

As you read this, there have been no reported deaths as a result of testing of any of the vaccines by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna or AstraZeneca. Most of the side effects of the three vaccines during testing have been mild and transitory. Why fight minor claims at the very end of this crisis? Let’s get healthy, dump the masks soon and go back to being a prosperous society!

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Please post them on our award-winning blog.

Synopsis: Southern IL “Hellhole” Circuit Court Treats WC Intervenor as Party to Third-Party Claim and Gets Appellate “Smack Down.”

Editor’s comment: Please note the 5th District Courts in Illinois are wildly pro-Plaintiff Attorney and also hilariously anti-business. The American Tort Reform Association outlines their research on their website. If you want to read more about it, go to this safe link: http://www.judicialhellholes.org/hellhole/2020-2021/cook-madison-st-clair-counties-illinois/

What I find surprising is the Appellate Court in that area also seems to be very pro-Plaintiff Attorney but every now and then, they pull one back.

This decision reversed what I assure our readers was an “anti-business” action by the Circuit Court. The employer was seeking recovery of a WC lien in the amount of about $130,000.00. The estimated cost of discovery was about $200,000—this projected discovery cost was not contested by Plaintiff. Plaintiff’s counsel wanted to allow all plaintiffs in that area to make demands for expensive and extensive discovery on intervenors to fend them off and allow “double-recovery” where a WC claimant could get their medical, lost time and permanency benefits and not have to pay anything back if there was a substantial recovery in third party litigation. One purpose of subro is to prevent double-recovery. We salute the Appellate Court for maintaining the intent and purpose of subrogation recovery in IL WC and third-party actions.

In a recent decision in Burdess v. Cottrell, Inc., 2020 IL App (5th) 190279, issued Dec. 1, 2020, the Fifth District Appellate Court ruled an Illinois Circuit Court committed error when it found an intervening workers’ compensation insurer in contempt for failing to comply with various discovery orders in an underlying tort suit filed by an injured employee against a third party. The Appellate Court accurately ruled under section 5(b) of the Workers’ Compensation Act [820 ILCS 305/5(b)], intervenors were allowed a very limited role in such litigation. For that reason the appellate court concluded the insurer did not become an active “party” to the underlying litigation by simply intervening to protect its lien. As a result, most of the trial court’s discovery orders pertaining to the insurer were improper and the trial court’s sanctions for the insurer’s failure to comply with the discovery orders was also improper.

Legal Background

In April 2016, Plaintiffs, a husband and wife filed a seven-count complaint against Defendants, Cottrell, Inc., General Motors, LLC, and Auto Handling Corporation, seeking damages for work-related injuries Plaintiff sustained on April 28, 2014, when he fell from the deck of a vehicle transportation rig working for Jack Cooper Transport. In July 2018, the WC insurer, Continental Indemnity Co. sought to intervene for the purpose of securing their employer’s/insureds lien as provided in section 5(b) of the IL WC Act. The Circuit Court granted Continental’s motion for leave to file a petition to intervene, without objection. Continental subsequently entered its appearance as intervenor.

Soon thereafter, Plaintiffs’ counsel issued written interrogatories to Continental and a request for production of documents. Continental objected, contending its role as an intervenor was greatly limited. It acknowledged it was subject to the subpoena power of the circuit court and accordingly produced an electronic file containing materials related to the underlying workers’ compensation claim of the husband, along with an itemization of the workers’ compensation benefits—these benefits comprised the WC lien.

Plaintiffs moved to compel discovery and for sanctions for Continental’s failure to comply with the discovery requests. Thereafter, the Circuit Court entered an order granting Plaintiffs’ motion to compel, overruling Continental’s objections, ordering Continental to fully respond to the discovery within 14 days, and denying Plaintiffs’ request for sanctions. Subject to the nonparty objection, Continental answered 15 of the 16 interrogatories. Continental responded to 45 of the 48 requests to produce and asserted additional objections.

Continental asserted production requests required it to comb through thousands of claim files to determine which claims were similar to the injuries suffered by Plaintiff, a task that would require 1.5 hours per file to review and redact the protected information, for a total of 4950 hours at a cost of $50 per hour for a skilled individual, totaling over $200,000.

The Circuit Court denied Continental’s motion to quash to the extent that it sought to relieve Continental of the obligation to produce workers’ compensation claim forms and reports of injuries completed by supervisors and/or drivers and injury reports filled out by drivers and/or supervisors for injuries. Treating the matter as one of “friendly contempt,” the Circuit Court observed Continental’s refusal to comply with the order to produce the information, held Continental in contempt of court, and imposed a penalty of only $25 for its noncompliance. The purpose of “friendly contempt” was to allow the matter to be appealed for a ruling that I am outlining right now.

Fifth District Appellate Court’s Opinion

The Appellate Court held an intervenor such as Continental was not a “party” to the underlying litigation, that section 5(b) allowed for, but did not require intervention, and after intervention was allowed by a trial court, the intervening insurer was not allowed to participate in the trial. The Appellate Court ruling indicated the record reflected Continental’s purpose in filing its motion for friendly contempt was not to cause undue delay or to dishonor the court.

Insurer Had No Direct Stake in the Outcome

The Court stressed that because Continental was not a party to the underlying litigation, it was not subject to the discovery mandates. In short, for Continental or Jack Cooper Trucking to provide discovery was meaningless. As a result, the circuit court’s discovery orders were improper, as were the minimal but actual sanctions imposed in one of the orders. The Court found the sum of $200,000 to produce the workers’ compensation claims as requested by Plaintiffs was “substantial and disproportionate” to Continental’s lien amount of $128,897.79.

Based on the foregoing, the Court reversed the Circuit Court’s discovery orders in relevant part. Moreover, because the discovery orders were improper, the Court also reversed the order holding Continental in contempt of court for violating the discovery orders.

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Please post them on our award-winning blog.

12-10-2020; WC News You May Have Missed; When Do IL Carriers/Employers Have to Hire VocRehabbers and more

Synopsis: Three Newsworthy Items for Our WC Readers.

Editor’s comment: I feel the nutty national media is missing a couple of things that WC risk managers, claims handlers and other interest parties should be aware of.

First—The Great Pandemic of 2020 Is Ending Soon!!!

Understanding how much we all like walking into a restaurant or retail outlet to then have to go back and get our masks, I want all my readers to understand, this ongoing financial, social and medical disaster has been solved!!! The doctors, researchers and vaccinologists found the cure. What you and I and everyone on this planet has to do is convince everyone to get the two shots needed to become almost certainly immune. Right now both Pfizer and Moderna have confirmed their vaccines are safe and work 19 out of 20 times. That is awesome when you consider this plague first hit about nine-ten months ago. The vaccine is being sent to a needle near you. I am signing up the minute I can get it.

This means we all need to get the shots and encourage friends and family members and co-workers they have to get the shots too. If you get the shot—duh—you are almost certainly immune, which means you can’t get sick and you can’t make anyone else sick. As I wrote a couple of weeks ago, the fussy Feds aren’t going to allow you to “force” folks to get the shots and you are going to be hard-pressed to fire/terminate a worker that doesn’t want the two injections needed but please, EVERYONE, please start trying a positive and forthright approach to let everyone know there is a cure and we all want to go back to restaurants, bars and work sites to have COVID-19 disappear forever. The faster we start getting vaccinated, the faster this bug is going to stop attacking our family, friends and co-workers.

Second—Joe Biden is Going To Be Our Next President.

Nuff said. Please get over it and start to deal with it. Please fight the urge to write and tell me the second-place finisher got “robbed”—I have heard it and don’t believe it. Almost every State has certified its votes. In fact, the election wasn’t actually close. For Illinoisans, we are now facing a Democrat President, Governor, Senate and House. We will see what that means to IL workers’ comp and other benefit costs.

Third—Probably the Biggest Change That is Inexorable in WC is Driverless Cars/Trucks/Buses.

About one in five jobs in this country are folks in the transportation industry. There are driverless cars and trucks that have gone literally millions of miles without an accident or fender-bender. Chevrolet has five cars in San Francisco, one of the toughest cities in the U.S. to drive in because of their hills and dales and the driverless cars are much, much safer than humans.

What I tell all my trucking clients and friends in that industry, if you don’t have “humans,” you don’t need human resources. We will see how this plays out but trust me, WC in the trucking and transportation industry is certain to change due to automation. Forewarned is forearmed—if you are in the transportation industry, expect lots of change.

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Please, please don’t shoot the messenger. Feel free to post your comments on our award-winning blog.

Synopsis: When Do Illinois Insurance Carriers/Employers Have to Hire Voc Rehab for IL WC Claims?

Editor’s comment: Following up on the article from last week, remember we are dealing with a sample claim where the employer terminated the injured worker in the normal course of business and the worker has job restrictions from either an FCE or an medical caregiver. The problem is how to get such folks back into a workplace—any Illinois workplace.

One of our partners confirmed many Claimant attorneys, when asked about job search logs or documentation of efforts to find work make a common demand—provide voc rehab/counseling. I have both good thoughts and challenging thoughts about such a request.

Good Thoughts?

A request for voc rehab/counseling does mean you are going to have some level of cooperation and participation from the injured worker. It also means you are going to have a paper trail of job search efforts while you are paying TTD. 

There is an often-ignored Rule 7110.10 in the Rules Governing Practice Before the Workers’ Compensation Commission ostensibly requiring voc rehab when the injured worker is continuously off work for 120 days. If you want the body of that Rule, send a reply. The Rule lays out what voc counseling is supposed to be. The concern about the Rule is there is no penalty on either side for ignoring it. Please note very few Claimant attorneys will even consider it.

Challenging Thoughts about Voc Rehab

My main challenging thought about voc rehab/counseling in general is you are treating an adult worker as if they are a child. It is hard for me to believe an adult needs “help” to find work. Someone who is starving or facing bankruptcy is going to locate work to survive. Survival is one reason we put up with difficult and demanding jobs—that is why they are called “jobs.” As teen-agers, we were all taught by our parents, family members and friends that when you want/need a job, you refer to the Want Ads in the newspaper or on online job websites and start applying for work until you find something suitable. The idea of having to hire someone to tell a worker to look at the Want Ads or get-job websites is silly to me.

Along with treating the injured worker like a child, I also feel voc rehab/counseling is expensive, time-consuming and truly unpredictable. The certified vocational counselor or CRC has to schedule the initial meeting, usually at Claimant counsel’s office. A CRC has to find out the skills and training of the injured worker. The CRC has to determine if the worker is going to be motivated to seek jobs in the labor market around the injured worker’s home. 

Another challenging concern about initiating voc rehab is there are some CRC’s who won’t stop themselves to tell you the Claimant isn’t doing what is needed to locate work and your money and their services are being wasted. I don’t feel voc rehab should ever be provided for more than 90 days. I have had CRC’s criticize me for saying this but let’s be frank, if the injured worker isn’t listening and doing what is needed to locate work, no CRC on the planet can make that horse drink water and find a job. If the injured worker doesn’t have a job within 30-60 or at very most 90 days, shut down voc and get a report from the CRC as to why Claimant is failing Voc Rehab 101. 

Staffing Companies Are “VocRehab” and Need to Be Considered In Getting Injured Workers Back to Work

Please note there are lots of staffing companies across the U.S. These companies have lots of jobs and need warm, capable bodies to fill them. My vote for all your claims when Claimants balk at seeking work, tell them to be sure to sign up with/file applications with as many staffing companies as they can locate. The staffing companies are smart and sharp and will bring in motivated folks to fill positions that match what a claimant is able to do.

Last But Not Least—Do the VocRehab for Claimant

Right now, as you read this, there are lots of “get-jobs” websites. Indeed, Monster and GlassDoor are the top three get-jobs websites but there are lots and lots more. Trust me, they have lots and lots of jobs for Spanish-speaking workers and folks with restrictions of all sorts. Your injured workers can list with them and they will get emails and updates galore.

When I am asked to get voc rehab for an injured worker, I quickly search online and find 50 suitable positions and send them to opposing counsel. You can do this on your non-litigated claims too.

I appreciate your thoughts and comments. Feel free to post your comments on our award-winning blog.