A Work Injury Affects the Entire Family – Workers Compensation Legal Blogs Posted by David W. Brown, Esq.

If you get injured at work and think that it will only affect you, think again. Unfortunately, your injury will affect your family as well. Because of this, it is of the utmost importance that you hire a top employee compensation attorney – an attorney at Pearson Koutcher Law – to protect you and your family. We are going to take you through a hypothetical case to illustrate how devastating an accident at work can be not just for you but for your entire family.

For example, let’s say you are married with two children, a 12-year-old daughter and a 10-year-old son. You work in a factory and injured your back and neck while moving a heavy machine. You are in constant pain and need to take medication. Since you can only handle light lifting, you will not be able to get your job done. You’ve never had workers’ compensation. Claim beforehand, but assume that the insurance company accepts your claim and starts paying you benefits. After all, you immediately reported the injury to your manager and went to the local emergency room on the day you received a notice of unemployment.

Don’t be shocked if the insurance company does not accept your claim as the insurance companies refuse claims for a number of reasons – no one saw you moving the machine when you were injured, you were in a car accident a year earlier Back injured It was an overcast day the claims manager made the decision whether to accept or reject your claim.

If your claim is denied, even if a Pearson Koutcher attorney is representing you and battling for your advantage, it can take several months to see money. “In the meantime,” you ask yourself in a panic, “how do I support my family?” Let’s say your wife was mostly looking after the children, working 10 to 15 hours a week part-time. Well, because you are unemployed and you are not receiving any employee benefits. Benefits she must generate more income. Her employer can’t offer her full-time hours, so she has to go through the stressful process of finding a full-time job even though she hasn’t worked full-time since the children were born – she hasn’t worked outside the home when the kids were very young and then started part-time to work.

Imagine it takes your wife a month to find a job (meanwhile the household bills pile up) and when she does, it’s a 3pm to 11pm job. She’s always been home at night when the kids are doing their homework and getting ready for bed, and because of these changed circumstances, she can’t. You are now responsible for ensuring that your daughter and son do their homework and go to bed on time. This is a role that you are not used to.

Suddenly the family dynamic is turned upside down and your son and daughter can feel the tension. In addition, your wife’s job pays half as much as your job in the factory where you worked for 10 years. While their income helps because normal household income has been cut in half, it creates stress. You default two payments on your car license and the bank threatens to repossess your vehicle.

Let’s look on the good side for a minute and assume that the insurance company is doing the right thing and taking up the claim. While worker comp. doesn’t pay you as much as your regular wage, workers compensation. The benefits are not taxable, so your take-away salary should be roughly the same. Does that mean you and your family will not be exposed to any stress during this time? We’re not scared. Accepting your claim will ease the financial pressure, but you will still have to deal with your injury – the pain and your limitations. Relying on pain medication to get through the day can relieve your pain, but you may experience side effects such as drowsiness that require you to lie down during the day. You may need to have physical therapy or injections three times a week.

Because of your injury, you may not be able to do certain things around the house that you would normally have been doing before you were injured. For example, you may have shoveled snow in a winter storm and cut the lawn in warmer weather. They also prided themselves on doing projects around the house like painting and raking leaves. Now you are preventing your back and neck injuries from doing these chores. As a result, either your family members have to do these duties or you have to hire and pay someone.

How can work accidents affect you and your family? You can feel anxious and depressed because of your injuries and the resulting pain and inability to do your job and activities around the house, as well as the uncertainty about your future. You were used to getting up and going to work Monday through Friday, and things have changed since your injury as you are at home all day and cannot do household chores that you used to take for granted. This leaves you feeling moody and withdrawn, which creates friction between you and the rest of your family. If your symptoms are severe enough, you may need to see your family doctor or a psychologist for treatment. You may be prescribed an antidepressant or anti-anxiety medication. And there is the added concern of whether or not employee compensation. will pay those bills.

We’re not trying to spread doom and darkness – we just let you know what to expect if you and your family are unfortunate enough to have an accident at work. You need the best on your side to make it through this ordeal. At Pearson Koutcher Law, each of our attorneys has over 20 years of experience handling employee compensation claims. We know the law back and forth and are hardworking, compassionate lawyers. Please call us for free, comprehensive advice.