Workers’ Compensation
Attorneys in Brooklyn

Workers’ Compensation Attorneys in Brooklyn in Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Office

1733 Sheepshead Bay Rd, Suite 43
Brooklyn NY 11235

New York state has a significant contribution to the US economy. The contribution is attributed to key industries operating in the state. Brooklyn’s contribution to the state cannot be ignored. With robust growth in the last decade, Brooklyn has added many jobs to the key industries like consulting, construction, and others. To support the operation of huge industries in the state, it has a vast workforce.

However, this growth is not without challenges. Brooklyn, with its vast workforce, has seen its share of workplace accidents. Companies have insurance against such accidents. However, either everyone is not aware or has misconceptions about Workers’ Compensation. And this lack of knowledge holds the company from claiming the compensations that they are entitled to.

 

---

Workers’ Compensation Attorneys in Brooklyn

 If you are a worker in Brooklyn, your employer is required to provide you with workers’ compensation insurance benefits and your employer is not responsible for paying for those benefits on your behalf. This is the case regardless of whether you work for the company on a part-time basis or are related to the proprietor of the business.

If an employee suffers an injury or illness as a result of their employment, workers’ compensation insurance will pay for medical treatment and other costs associated with the injury or illness. Additionally, if the injury or illness is severe enough, workers’ compensation insurance will pay cash disability benefits while the employee is recovering from their injuries. To be more specific, workers are eligible for workers’ compensation benefits for any injury “arising out of and in the course of employment” as well as for any disease that the employee contracted while carrying out the duties associated with their job.

Injuries sustained at work are entirely avoidable; however, they do take place on a regular basis due to employers who cut corners or who fail to address hazards and unsafe working conditions. The severity of the injuries that workers sustain on the job can range from a minor inconvenience to a disability that lasts a lifetime. Some require an employee to be absent from work for an extended period of time, while others may only cause them to be absent for a few hours or a day or two.

In addition to having their medical expenses covered, injured workers might also be eligible to receive cash disability benefits, but this depends on the severity of their injuries. The families of employees who pass away as a result of a fatal injury or a terminal illness are eligible to receive death benefits. These benefits are intended to cover the costs of the funeral and burial, as well as the income that the deceased employee would have provided to the family had they lived.

For over 20 years, the workers’ compensation attorneys at HURT-511 have been providing assistance to injured employees in the local community. We are experienced in assisting local residents in obtaining the benefits to which they are entitled in the event that they suffer an injury or illness on the job. If you have been hurt while working, please get in touch with one of our workers’ compensation attorneys in Brooklyn.

Our consultations are 100% free, and we don’t charge you anything until we win your case. Call us today, chat with us live, or fill out our Free Case Evaluation Form.

 

 

The Brooklyn Workers’ Compensation Claims Process

Immediately following a workplace injury or the discovery that you have contracted a work-related illness, the first step you should take is to notify your employer. If you require emergency care, it is perfectly acceptable to report your injury once the emergency has been resolved.

If your injury is not an emergency, you should seek medical attention after reporting it. Your initial report is not required to be in writing, but you must submit a written follow-up within 30 days of your injury. Include in your report the date, time, nature of your injury or illness, and the location on the premises where it occurred. Professional workers’ compensation attorneys in Brooklyn can help you prepare the report.

 

Filing Your Workers’ Compensation Claim

After informing your employer of your injury and receiving medical treatment, you must file a claim with the New York Workers Compensation Board (“the Board”). You can submit a claim online, in person at your local Board office, or by mail. Here, follow the instructions for any of the available options.

Do not delay submitting your claim. You must file a claim within two years of the date of your injury or from the date you realize or should have realized your injury or illness was caused on the job or while performing your job duties. If you miss this deadline, your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance company can deny your claim and you will not receive the compensation you deserve.

 

After You File Your Claim

Once you have informed your employer about your injury, the clock will start ticking on certain responsibilities that your employer has toward you in relation to your injury. The employer is required to report the employee’s injury to both the Board and the insurance company within ten days of receiving the report of the injury from the employee. It is always a good idea to follow up with your employer in order to make certain that someone has actually reported your injury. In the event that this has not occurred, you have the ability to file a complaint with the Board, and your employer may be subject to significant financial penalties, including $1,000 for each instance of noncompliance and a second penalty of up to $2,500 in the event that the employer fails to comply.

Upon receiving a report of a work-related injury from the employer, the insurance company for the employer is obligated, by law, to provide a written description of the employee’s rights under the workers’ compensation law of the state of New York to the employee. Within fourteen days of receiving the report from the employer, the company is required to send this statement to the employee. Alternatively, the statement must be included with the first check that the company sends to the injured employee, whichever comes first.

If the employee is eligible to receive cash benefits in addition to medical benefits, the insurance carrier for the employer is required to begin making these weekly payments within 18 days and must inform the employee that payments will be made. If the employee is not eligible to receive cash benefits, the medical benefits are not affected. It is possible for the insurance company to reject the claim made by the employee for a number of different reasons, some of which are acceptable while others are not.

The company is required to give notice to the Board before beginning payments or deciding whether or not to dispute the claim. After the initial payment, insurance companies are required to keep making cash benefit payments on a biweekly basis going forward. In addition, the insurance company is required to conduct an assessment of the employee’s requirement for rehabilitation treatment twelve weeks after the accident.

The laws governing workers’ compensation in New York also impose certain obligations on healthcare providers. After providing a report on the injured worker’s injuries to the District Office, the initial treating physician is obligated to provide copies of the report to the employee, the employee’s insurance provider, and the insurance provider. If the worker needs care beyond what was initially treated, the physician is required to report on the worker’s progress every 45 days.

 

Brooklyn Workers’ Compensation Benefits

Every claim for workers’ compensation is different from the next. Injured workers in New York are eligible for a variety of benefits under the state’s law. These benefits are determined by the severity of the employee’s injury as well as the degree to which they are disabled.

 

Medical Benefits

Every worker has the right to have the costs of their medical care covered by their employer beginning on the date of their injury and continuing on until they have fully recovered from it. You should always keep in mind that an insurance company or employer may dictate to injured workers both the specific health care provider as well as the medical facility an employee may use to receive care for his or her injuries or illness. This does not apply to urgent care, which is required to immediately treat the injury.

Not only do these restrictions apply to the care that is required to treat the initial injury, such as diagnostic tests and surgeries, but they also apply to the pharmacies at which employees may have their prescriptions filled. This is because both types of care are necessary to treat the initial injury. If the insurance company has a contract with one of the Preferred Provider Organizations, or PPOs, offered by the State Health Department, it is possible that it will require an employee to receive his or her initial non-emergency care from a physician or facility that is part of the PPO.

After thirty days have passed since the employee’s initial treatment, however, the employee is free to seek treatment from any authorized provider, regardless of whether or not the provider is a participant in the PPO. It is required of the PPOs that they have at least two different providers in each specialty and that they operate in a minimum of two hospitals. This is done to guarantee that the PPOs have adequate capacity to treat workers’ compensation patients.

 

Cash Disability Payments

Insurance companies are obligated to make cash disability payments on a weekly basis to employees who have been unable to work due to an illness or injury that has lasted for more than seven days. The amount of benefits to which an injured worker is entitled cannot exceed the maximum that has been set by the state; this maximum is increased or decreased on an annual basis. The amount of cash disability benefits that an employee may be eligible to receive is calculated by taking two-thirds of the employee’s average weekly salary over the course of the previous year and multiplying that number by the percentage of disability that the injury has caused the injured worker.

When an injured worker is able to return to work, but only at a job that does not pay as much as the employee was making prior to the accident, the worker may be eligible to receive weekly cash benefits that make up 2/3 of the difference between the two wages. These benefits are paid out by the workers’ compensation insurance company.

Certain injuries can leave a worker permanently unable to perform their job. An employee’s loss of earning power as a result of a permanent impairment of a body part as a result of a work-related injury is calculated using the State’s Schedule Loss of Use (SLU). This schedule was developed by the state. In the event that a worker suffers a permanent injury to their hearing, foot, toes, leg, fingers, hand, eyesight, arms, or arms, or if they suffer a serious disfigurement to their face, neck, or scalp, they are eligible to receive an SLU award.

Employees are only eligible for an SLU award once they have reached their MMI, which is the point at which they have made the most medical progress. This indicates that the employee has 1) recovered from the injury to the greatest extent that is medically possible, 2) the treating physician has submitted a medical report to the Board stating that the employee has reached the MMI along with the employee’s percentage of disability, and 3) the employee, as a result of his or her work injury, has a permanent loss of function in the injured body part. The employee has met all three of these requirements in order to be deemed to have reached MMI.

Statutes determine the amount of time over which an injured worker is eligible to receive cash disability payments on a weekly basis. This period of time can range from 15 weeks for the loss of a fourth finger all the way up to 312 weeks for the loss of an arm in its entirety.

 

Death Benefits

Even though most workplace accidents can be avoided, there are still instances where an employee’s life is taken because of one. New York’s workers’ compensation law provides for weekly death benefits to the worker’s dependents in such cases. It’s not mandatory that every relative submit a claim for death benefits. These benefits are restricted by New York law to the spouse, children, and other members of the employee’s household who were financially dependent on the employee at the time of death.

Death benefits are paid out each week at a rate of two-thirds of the deceased worker’s average weekly wage for the year prior to their death, up to the state’s maximum allowed per week.

The family of a deceased employee may be eligible for weekly death benefits and up to $12,500 to cover funeral and burial costs in counties within the metropolitan New York area if the employee died on the job.

 

Contact Workers’ Compensation Attorneys in Brooklyn

Since the day we first opened our doors, the workers’ compensation attorneys in Brooklyn at HURT-511 have exemplified our firm’s dedication to our community by assisting our  clients in receiving the maximum monetary benefit to which they are legally entitled. We have a history of achieving outstanding results for our customers that we have built up over the course of many years.

Our consultations are 100% free, and we don’t charge you anything until we win your case. Call us today, chat with us live, or fill out our Free Case Evaluation Form.