If you’ve been reading these blogs, then you know that a Los Angeles workers’ comp lawyer can help you to get the medical care you need to bounce back from your work related injuries. Workers’ comp exists in part to provide you with medical care, so that you can recover and hopefully return to work. That’s one of the basic goals of workers’ comp. However, that’s not all it can do. Over the years, the ODG Law Group has helped so many clients to utilize the workers’ comp system in the right fashion to help them move forward. In this blog, we’ll highlight some lesser known workers’ comp benefits and info.
Los Angeles Workers’ Comp Lawyer Benefits
When we say that “workers’ comp covers medical care,” we mean a lot more than “it’ll pay for when the doctor puts a sling on your arm” or something like that. Workers’ comp can cover the medical costs for so many treatments in addition to just doctor or hospital visits. In fact, it can cover travel costs by reimbursing you for mileage. In some cases, it’s been used to help people get to specialists. That way, they didn’t have to pay for all of that travel. It also can be used to pay for equipment. So, if you need some kind of new mobility device, even temporarily, workers’ comp can be used to pay for that.
Physical Therapy Benefits and More
Physical therapy is one of the biggest kinds of treatment that workers’ comp can pay for. This can be especially critical if you’re someone who suffered a repetitive stress injury or cumulative trauma injury at work. This physical therapy can put you back in control of you body again; getting it to do what you want it to do. The other thing about physical therapy is that it can be lengthy. You can have physical therapy for a long period of time. When necessary, the ODG Law Group can work to make sure that you get physical therapy for as long as you need it.
In some cases, workers’ comp can cover disability benefits. The best case scenario for an injury at work is that you pop right up, good as new and go right back to work. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Sometimes, it takes a while to recover from a work related injury. Sometimes, you don’t recover at all. In those circumstances, you can’t go back to working your job at the same level you used to. This can be so frustrating, because you count on that job financially. Thankfully, workers’ comp can provide a solution. Workers’ comp will provide a settlement when you do not recover completely from your injury and have a permanent disability from your injury.
Should you have any questions about disability benefits or any other part of workers’ comp, don’t hesitate to give us a call. We love talking to clients or prospective clients about how we can help their workers’ comp cases.
More Than Just Money
Workers’ compensation can help in many ways in addition to providing you with settlement money. For example, if you are injured in such a way that keeps you from doing your old job or other jobs, workers’ comp can get you vocational retraining. Here, you’ll learn some kind of new skill (or relearn an old one) that will help you to return to the workforce. This is a kind of benefit that puts you back in charge of your life. With this particular training, now you can go out and get a new job. That’s just one kind of benefit from workers’ comp; there are many others. These benefits and others are typically called “job displacement benefits.”
Job displacement benefits are essentially a voucher. It helps to pay for any kind of retraining that you may need as a result of your injury. As with your medical care, you shouldn’t have to pay for retraining yourself. You didn’t want to get hurt on the job, you didn’t ask for it to happen – so, by that same token, you shouldn’t have to pay for your retraining. These workers’ compensation benefits are here to give you a hand up. There’s a lot that goes into these job displacement benefits, and if you think you should have them for your injury, it’s worth reaching out to an attorney.
The qualifications for these job displacement benefits are typically that you have to be eligible to receive permanent disability benefits, first off. That means that you’ve been permanently disabled due to your injury, as discussed above. On top of that, your employer doesn’t offer you work or you are deemed unable to work in your pre-injury capacity by a doctor. If those circumstances are met, then you might be right for job displacement benefits. It’s critical to note that while retraining is a part of these benefits, skill enhancement is, too.
So, if you worked a job you were particularly good or adept at, and then you got hurt, this skill enhancement could give you a chance to work that job again. Or, alternately, if you can’t return to that job, then you can work one very similar to it. What retraining and skill enhancement have become in the last few years is much more than it was only a brief period of time ago. These particular benefits can be very helpful, as they can put you in control of your life at a time when you may feel like it’s somewhat out of control. As with all of these benefits, if you have any questions, we can help you to figure out the best path forward.
Work Related Death
When we discuss “work related injuries” on these blogs, it’s important to keep in mind that “work related death” is a sad possibility. When the worst happens, you deserve to be compensated for that as well. Workers are killed on the job far too often, and when it happens, the survivors and dependents deserve to be compensated for it. Obviously, workers’ compensation is no substitute for the life of a loved one. No benefit is great enough to make up for it. However, the money can help with any bills that come in the aftermath of the incident. That’s true of medical bills, funeral ones, and more.
Should a loved one perish in a work related accident, the spouse, kids and other dependents may be able to receive payments through the workers’ compensation system. This is a complicated, difficult process. That’s all the more reason to hire attorneys who know workers’ comp law inside and out. When you’re dealing with this kind of tragedy, having one less thing to worry about can help more than you even realize. Grieving is a long, complicated process. With one less concern, you can focus on what truly matters.
There are many benefits related to workers’ compensation. Workers of all kinds qualify for it when they’re injured at work. That being said, workers’ compensation can be very complex and complicated. Instead of trying to figure it all out on your own (especially while you’re dealing with an injury) it can be so much easier to let the experts handle it for you. You can give us a call to set up a free consultation. We can walk you through everything you need to know as well as handle the paperwork. All you have to do is call us at (818) 975-3080 or head to our site.
