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South Carolina
South Carolina Workers Compensation Can Be Complicated
Our law firm can help you through this complex process
Workers Compensation is a standard business insurance to help employees recover from workplace injuries or occupational disease. In South Carolina, an employer with four or more employees is covered by the South Carolina Workers Compensation Act, which means your boss must provide such coverage if you have more than three co-workers.
A settlement can help you and your dependents avoid hardship if you can't work as you recover from work accident injuries. An employee who qualifies for Workers Comp insurance for an industrial accident or illness will usually receive payments for lost wages and medical bills based on doctors' and insurance claim adjusters' assessment of the case.
Jump to the following sections:
- Why You May Have A Work Injury
- Our Workman's Comp Services
- Proving Your Work Injury
- Fighting Denied Benefits
You May Need a South Carolina Work Comp Lawyer to Get Full Benefits
The workers comp process can involve a great deal of time and effort. Sometimes proving your work injury is difficult, especially if it is something like a back injury from a construction accident or carpal tunnel syndrome from repetitive stress injuries, where there are no outward appearances of an injury such as cuts or bruises.
Workers comp application paperwork and injury documentation may require work-station analysis, safety violations assessment, medical treatments, proof of improper employee training and negotiations with employers. The process typically will also involve an "independent medical exam," or IME, which requires dealing with doctors.
Helping You Through The Complicated Benefits Process
If you are recovering from an industrial accident injury or taking care of a loved one who was injured on at work, call the Benjamin R. Matthews and Associates, LLC at (803) 799-1700 or contact us online for a free initial consultation. We can take care of everything from dealing with hospital billing departments to contacting OSHA if necessary, so you can focus on getting better and getting back to work.
Why You May Have A Work Injury
Whether you work in a hospital, on a construction site, in a factory or an office, you could get injured doing even the simplest tasks. After doing the same job for months or years, however, you may become accustomed to nagging pain and subtle health problems, shrugging off a sore neck, constant cough or vague dizziness as being "part of the job." Hard-to-detect workplace injuries may include:
- healthcare worker accidents, from dangerous surgical implements, medical equipment or diseases
- repetitive stress injuries, such as sore wrists, arms and shoulders
- exposure to chemicals or dust, causing systemic conditions or breathing problems
- restaurant injuries, such as first-, second- or third-degree burns from hot ovens
- insufficient training or protective equipment
- safety violations by employers
By the time some of our clients come to us, their initial job injury has turned into work-related chronic pain because the source of the pain from their workplace injuries may have been hard to detect at first. Unlike obvious on-the-job injuries from heavy lifting, chemical spills, broken equipment, hazardous machinery, falling objects, delivery van accidents or commercial truck crashes, some work injuries evolve over long periods of time. When you have no cuts, abrasions, burns or bruises, it's often your word against your boss. And you may feel there's no chance he or she will believe you're injured.
Remember, your benefits affect more than just you. If you have dependents, such as kids or aging parents, and you're suffering from an occupational injury or pain that could force you to take time off from work, their well-being is at stake as well. That's why we're eager to meet with you and help you get your life back on track.
If you've never been injured at work before, it's hard to imagine what is involved in the workers' compensation process. You may wonder why you even need a lawyer. What many people don't realize is simply proving that you sustained a serious injury can be difficult. Your boss or a skeptical doctor might try to insist that you're fine and can return to work. That's why it's critical that you have us on your side, standing up for your rights.
When you have us working for you, other people will take your claim seriously. There are many different things we can do to improve your claim, including:
- help fill out and file forms
- submit forms to the right office
- deal with insurance adjusters
- deal with doctors
- fight denied benefits
- assist in proving your work injury
- fully utilize South Carolina law on your behalf
If you're suffering from pain that may be related to a work accident or repetitive motion injuries, contact us. We can help.
If you've suffered an obvious or severe workplace accident injury-whether it's broken bones at a construction site, whiplash from a car accident in a delivery van or a laceration from a scalpel in an operating room-you likely won't need any help convincing your boss, medical examiners or insurance adjusters that you were hurt on the job. But if your injuries are invisible, it might come down to your word versus your boss or a skeptical doctor.
We can help you if you're dealing with repetitive stress carpal tunnel syndrome, strained back or other chronic pain. If it's a musculoskeletal injury, sometimes not even an MRI can prove you're in agony. As your attorney, we can:
- make sure you create a complete job description, listing every aspect of your work duties
- coach you in documenting any job task that could have caused your original job injury pain
- help you become aware of work-related motions or activities that may trigger flare-ups
- talk to your doctors and insurance adjusters directly on your behalf
According to the law in our state, in order to successfully obtain a settlement, you must prove you were hurt at work.
Don't let your employer, doctors and claims adjusters dictate what happens to you. Stand up for your rights. Contact us.
Even if you were clearly injured and filed the correct forms, you still might receive a "Notice of Dispute." Don't despair. Yes, that means the insurance adjusters don't believe you sustained an injury on the job, but that's not the end of the process. We can help you appeal your denied application.
If your job injury claim was denied, you may feel frustrated, thinking nobody believes you have real workplace injury pain and suffering. Don't be bullied by an impatient insurance adjuster, a dismissive doctor or a manager who thinks you're not in pain. Take action with an aggressive attorney on your side. Contact Benjamin R. Matthews and Associates, LLC today.