Greetings, thanks to my colleagues blasting on firm wide emails, social media and linkedin that it was my birthday last week, I received around 250 emails and texts, while I was trying to have a day off. (Please don’t send any now, I get it, you want to wish me a happy…blah, blah)

But, you can get me a present.   If I could wish for a few things to make it easier to defend my clients it would be:

1. Adjusters to send the medical records as they get the reports.   Please as soon as they hit your desk, forward them to me so I can stay in the loop and help you strategize.  Both the dwc-25’s and the narrative notes.  Many adjusters do send these, but it would be great if it was automatic.
2. Employers to let the adjuster know when the claimant’s health insurance cancelled.  Remember, we have to increase the AWW by the employer’s cost of the health insurance (the cost at the time of the accident).   This often gets missed and we wind up owing penalties, interest and attorney fees on the late payment.
3. Adjusters to ask the claimant who their primary care doctor is in the initial contact. If the claimant says they don’t have one, ask where they go for any personal health issues.   That will greatly speed up the discovery investigation.  Otherwise we have to wait for the depo to find out and get the subpoena out.
4. Employers to document when a claimant voluntarily misses light duty work versus when they leave to attend medical appointments. So many times in claims for TPD, we fight over this and then have to go back and recreate the weeks to see if there is TPD owed.  Often times, without documentation we wind up paying some TPD if they fell below 80%…and attorney fees.
5. Pay our legal bills on time.  Hey it was my birthday 🙂

Sincerely,
Morgan Indek | Partner