Accidents are common at workplace. In fact they happen even in the safest of work environments. One might fall from a ladder or suffer from a back injury doing heavy lifting. Certain types of working conditions can slowly but steadily lead to problems such as lung infection. Thankfully there is Workers’ Compensation law that promises compensation and other benefits to employees and their families suffering injury at work or contracting serious illness. While all this sounds good in reality, employers and their insurers often deny employees legitimate workers’ comp claims or exploit the red tape to offer lesser than rightful compensation. If you are a victim of injury or illness navigating through, the complex system of appeals can add to your agony. This is where you need to hire the Workers Comp Attorney in Oakland, CA.
Why Hire Workers Comp Attorney in Oakland CA?
The first and foremost reason to hire a top-rated attorney in such case is to improve your odds of earning rightful compensation and benefits. He/She is an expert in workers’ compensation law and will approach your case methodically cutting through the red tape. The work injury lawyer shall communicate with your employer and their insurers systematically to ensure you are compensated well enough for the medical treatment you have undergone, the future treatment/rehabilitation costs and the wage loss you have suffered. If your case goes for a trial the attorney offers unrelenting legal representation. From gathering medical evidence on your behalf to negotiating a good settlement your work compensation lawyer will do everything to projects your rights and interests.
How Comp Attorney in Oakland CA Ensure Fair Compensation?
As we have mentioned above attorney would represent you in a methodical way to earn you fair compensation. He/she represents you through the different stages of the process and here are the stages involved in earning you rightful compensation –
Gathering Medical and Other Evidence
Your claims have to be backed by evidence and without strong evidence the odds of your claims being rejected is high. Seasoned attorneys would start the claims process by gathering evidence. They would start by obtaining all your medical records related to the treatment you have undergone for the illness or injury. They focus on collecting medical opinions from independent medical experts. If required they would prepare medical experts to depose during trial to strengthen your claims. Apart from medical experts they also collect testimony of vocational experts, colleagues and all other individuals who can support your claim.
Negotiate Settlement
Once all the evidence has been collected and the claim has been filed your attorney would negotiate the settlement with the insurance company. This is a tough process as the lawyer needs to protect your interest while the insurance company would like to keep the compensation amount low. They would negotiate compensation and benefits based on the extent of your injuries, the limitations you’d have to deal with for the rest of your life, your future medical expenses related to the injury and your ability/inability to resume work in the future. Factoring in all these requires great amount of expertise on part of the lawyer.
Representing You in Trial
If you fail to arrive at a settlement with your employer’s insurance company the case would need to be taken to trial. Your attorney would produce all relevant document and evidence to support your claims and also make experts depose on your behalf. Few cases go to trial and there are few workers’ compensation attorneys who have experience of the trial stage but a good one would ensure you earn fair compensation at trial.
To sum up you should have no dilemma in hiring the services of a dedicated workers comp attorney in Oakland, CA if you have suffered an injury. Most of these attorneys work on a no benefit-no fee basis and hence you’d lose nothing in hiring their services.
Summary
In this write-up we look at how a workers compensation attorney would help you in receiving fair compensation for your injury or illness.