At least 6% of Missouri workers suffered non-fatal on-the-job injuries every year. Work-related accidents caused 8,500 deaths and injured 3.3 million people. Under the Missouri law if your employer has five or more employees, or if your employer is in the construction industry and has even one employee, they are required to have some form of workers’ compensation insurance to cover injured employees. A claim for compensation under the Missouri Workers’ Compensation statutes is like filing an insurance claim requesting benefits. Workers’ Compensation laws are designed to ensure that employees who are injured on-the-job receive medical treatment, payment for said medical treatment, weekly benefits while you are unable to work, and possibly weekly payments or a lump sum payment for partial or total disability resulting from a work-related injury.
Work-related injuries typically covered under Missouri workers’ compensation laws include:
• physical injuries including broken bones, sprains, muscle strains, etc.
• carpal tunnel/repetitive trauma injuries
• loss of hearing or vision
• occupational diseases, including work-related pulmonary conditions
• loss of use of limbs
• work-induced heart attack or stroke
If you have been injured while on the job, the first thing you should do is report your injury to your employer. If you need to see a doctor, your employer has the right to select a treating physician, and therefore it is important that you notify your employer of your desire to see a doctor. It is also important that you notify your employer and request to see a doctor of their choosing, because if you go to your own doctor rather than using your employer’s treating doctor, your employer may not have to pay for your own doctor’s bill
Sometimes a work-related injury will support both a workers' compensation claim is also a personal injury action. Within the context of workers' compensation, when it is said that a workers compensation insurer has placed a "lien" on a file, it means that they have registered a claim to be reimbursed out of the proceeds of the personal injury litigation for certain expenditures they made on behalf of the injured worker. This process, whereby an insurer claims a right to reimbursement from a third party who is also responsible for the loss, is known as "subrogation".
Workers' compensation laws vary significantly between states, so it is important to check a particular state's laws in attempting to determine if a workers' compensation carrier will be able to assert a lien on a personal injury case arising from the same injury. Where liens are allowed, they typically permit the workers' compensation insurer to recover certain expenditures made toward the injured worker's medical care, rehabilitation, and lost wages.
Workers' compensation carriers are aware that at times a lien will be so large that it creates a disincentive to litigate. That is to say, if the lien will approach or exceed the total amount a plaintiff is likely to receive as the result of a lawsuit, the plaintiff may simply choose not to litigate. Also, the workers' compensation carrier is generally expected to pay for its share of the litigation in return for receiving a share of the recovery. As a result, the carrier will often negotiate with the plaintiff's attorney about the amount of the lien, and will often agree to resolve the lien for an amount substantially less than the face value of their claim. Whenever a workers' compensation insurer attempts to impose a lien on a personal injury file, the plaintiff's counsel should attempt to negotiate a lower figure - even if the insurer refuses to negotiate, nothing is lost through the effort, and most of the time negotiations will result in a reduction in the amount demanded by the insurer
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