Ty Wilson Law Podcast

So, when you're reinjured on the job in Georgia, how does it affect you? If you've been injured you were taken out of work, you returned back to work, and you actually reinjured yourself. Well, quite frankly it's possibly a new injury or a re injury depending upon the circumstances. Is it the same body part? Is it a different body part? What was going on. You would have two different injuries with the same employer and they kind of merge together.  Okay, it would be two differen separate dates of injury. However, they could merge together with the medical benefits and the income benefits. Hopefully that's answered your question. Stay safe!

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We were asked the other day.  What is the best way to settle your Georgia workers compensation claim? And the reality is... Well, that just kind of depends on where your claim is. Are you getting weekly checks? Is it a medical only claim? Do you still need an extensive amount of care moving forward?  Do you need a surgery? This really depends on where your claim is. So, the best way to settle the claim is to figure out strategically where you are. And where you can live with your care. Because by settling that claim you're giving up those weekly checks. You're giving up future medical benefits. And you're basically saying, "I've got it from here." You're gonna try to negotiate a lump sum of money. You're gonna move on.  A lot of times there's a resignation involved as well. So, you when I say move on, I mean move on to a new employer. New life possibly doing new things. Stay safe! 

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Duty to mitigate your damages. So, you have a duty. If you've been involved in a car wreck and your car is at an impound lot you have a duty to get that car out you have a duty to get that car out. You can't just let the storage cost to crew. And a lot of people don't know that. We've had a special circumstance recently, where the person lived in an HOA or homeowners association. And they wouldn't allow her to drag or tow the vehicle. She didn't have any property to tow it to. And in that case the storage cost kept a crewing and it was an older model vehicle. And eventually, the storage cost will get more than the value of the car itself and pretty much you just pay the toll lot to just take it. And then at that point, your property damage claim is over. So, you wanna be really careful with that duty to mitigate your damages. Stay safe!

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So, we got a couple questions today. First one is… What is light duty? And then another one that's kind of connected to that is, I was put on light duty. And my employer my job does not have light duty work. So what can I expect? Or what happens with my claim? So, it's cover light duty. When you go to your doctor, or a work injury, the doctor can say, "You're full duty." "No restrictions." 'You can get back to work." "Congratulations!" Or they can say, "You're out of work completely." Those are the two extremes. But there's one other one that's light duty. So, what is it? It's where they say, "We don't want you lifting more than 10 pounds.. fifteen pounds… twenty pounds… twenty five pounds. It's up to the doctor. We don't want you standing for an extended period of time. We don't want you sitting for an extended period of time. We don't want you putting pressure on your knee if it's a knee injury. we don't want you using a hand, your left hand, if you hurt your left hand. And so, light duty also known as limited duty or modified duty is where you are able to go back to work but not in a full duty capacity. Meaning, you do have medical limitations.  And so, depending upon what those light duty restrictions are, well then your job obligation at least in the state of Georgia is to let your employer know what are your restrictions. "Do you have any restrictions?" 'Yes, I have light duty restrictions." "Here they are." And the employer then has the opportunity to say, "Okay, you know that we do heavy work here." "I'm sorry we're not gonna be able to accommodate your restriction." And send you home. Or they can say, "Okay, I need you over in the office." "But I never work in the office." "Why are you sending me the office?" Well, they can create a light duty job for you. And depending upon what it is as long as it fits within your medical restrictions. They are allowed to do that. And if you say, "Well, I don't wanna do that." "That's not what I do." They can deny paying you income benefits. So, you really wanna think long and hard about that or you wanna speak with your workers compensation attorney. If you have one. So. when the employer cannot accommodate and will not create a job for you for your light duty restrictions, well then, you are entitled to income benefits, called temporary partial disability. 'Cause you're partially disabled, temporarily. And so, those can be calculated pretty easily. However, the important thing is, can your employer accommodate your library restrictions? Or are they not going to accommodate them? Something else that may help you out and determine kind of where you sit in your client is, are they gonna bring you back? Are you going to get better? If not, you may wanna consider speaking with a workers compensation attorney. My office practices here in the state of Georgia. But you may want to obtain consultation with someone in whatever state you got injured in. Talk about what your rights are. And then, of course, what your options are. There are a lot of different options. It just depends on if you are able to go back physically and if you wanna go back. And then, of course, if the employer wants you back. Hope this information has been helpful. we'll see you on the next video! 

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So as lawyers, we have all that words that seem possibly foreign to some people. So, I was asked to explain, “What is a claimant?”. A claimant is someone who brings forth a claim in a workers compensation claim. What is a defendant, well, we really don't use the term defendant because it's administratively based. So you usually have the claimant or the injury worker, also known as the employee. And then on the other side of the matter you have the employer and the insurance company. And those are usually just referred to as the employer and the insurance company. And so, those are the terms for that deposition that's a sworn testimony under oath. Question and answer session with you as the claimant typically and the employer and sure will have their attorney. If you have an attorney they'll be there with you where they should be. Alright, stay safe!

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So we received a question the other day to explain a little bit more about what the exclusive remedy is under Georgia workers compensation. Well what that means is if you have been injured, you cannot really file a lawsuit against your employer or co worker if they're the ones who cause the injury. What you have to do the exclusive remedy under the law is to go through workers comp and to follow workers compensation claim. Now, how do people sometimes have personal injury claim and workers compensation claim? Well that's where a third party. So that would be no one connected to the employer, no co workers or anything like that. If someone's hurt by machine and there is another company that comes in and maintains that machine, well, arguably there could be a third party action. If the employer takes care of the machine, entirely by themselves it's probably not there. Stay safe!

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We had an employer reach out to us saying, "okay. Well I have a family business. Does that do I still need to get workers compensation coverage?” Well the reality is, Georgia law requires. If you have three or more employees, that you should get workers compensation insurance coverage and cover yourself. Y ou could be penalized by the state board of Workers Compensation. And so as an employer, anytime you have 3 or more full time employees, you wanna get workers compensation insurance. You wanna get workers compensation insurance. Understand its family. Understand they likely will not file a claim. However, actually protects both sides. And so you definitely wanna look into that if you have a family business. Stay safe!

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So what is a claimant? A claimant is someone who brings forth the claimor starts the claim. Usually it is the injured worker. So really you can use those terms interchangeably. You can say claimant, injured worker, employee and usually on the other side of it you have the employer, the insurer. We don't really use the term defendant in a workers compensation claim. It's an administratively based system. And so you usually have the claimant. And then the employer, and the insurance or insurer. Anyway those are the parties that tend to show up in Georgia workers compensation claims. Let us know if you have any other questions.

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Unpaid interns can an unpaid intern qualify or file for a work injury claim in the state of Georgia. If they're truly unpaid, meaning they're getting no benefits other than working that job, then the short answer is no. If they're paid however, then they can qualify for workers compensation. So certainly, paid versus unpaid is very important when it comes to internships. Stay safe!

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Hello, okay. So, this video is part 2 of what you should not do in a deposition.  The first thing. There's seven different pieces we have and we'll go into some explanation here on this video. But the first thing you should not do is not telling the truth.  So, what I mean by that is there's a lot of negatives there. It's important that you're truthful. At the very beginning of your deposition you're gonna be sworn under oath. You swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth. And so, therefore, it is anticipated throughout your deposition that you will be honest. And you need to be honest. As someone who's been injured on the job in a workers compensation setting or even as a plaintiff in a car wreck case, one of the main things you have is credibility. Credibility that you actually were injured. Credibility that your pain is what you say it is. If you lie under oath, you lose credibility. And if you lose credibility, you can lose your claim, just because of the fact that the people who decide on your case may decide that you're not telling the truth. So, it's very important that you are truthful throughout the entire deposition. So, number 2 exaggerate your injuries or exaggerate circumstances. You do not want to exaggerate. You want to downplay if anything. You do wanna tell the truth again but you do not wanna say your pain is a 10 out of 10 while you're sitting in a two and a half hour deposition not moving not flinching not having to get up and stand and so forth. And I'm not saying you should do those things in your deposition. What I'm saying is, your pain is probably not a 10 out of 10 if you're able to sit comfortably in the deposition chair in two and a half hours or less and not have to move. And so, don't exaggerate your injuries. Don't exaggerate details.  Be very truthful. Downplay, that's more important. Number 3, answering questions before the other attorney who's asking them is finished. You're gonna see where a lot of these things are going a lot of the questions or background questions. "What's your name?" "What's your address?" "How long have you lived there?" "What's your date of birth?" "Are you married?" "Do you have children?" You're gonna see exactly where the questions are going. But don't cut them off. Let them finish. We've seen some attorneys that decide that they're gonna be tricky because the person's answering questions before they're finished. Asking them. So wait for them to ask the question completely. Pause for a second or two and then answer the question. If the question is complicated, some of our main things that we always tell people is you should say… "I don't understand the question..." They ask two different questions. Also known as compound question. Also known as compound question. You may say… "I'm sorry I didn't understand that..." And make them repeat the question. They should only ask you one question at one time. So, if there's any confusion, the most important thing is not to guess. And the most important thing is to make sure you understand the question they're asking before you respond accordingly.  Number 3. Arguing with the other attorney. They ask you a question or they say something that you're just not happy with.  The last thing you should do is argue with them. It's their deposition. They can make things a lot worse… but you should not argue with them. Answer the question; Keep it as short and concise as possible; And then have them move on. Really the idea. Just like I said in the other video is answer your questions, you've got to be there, get through the process and get out. You don't have to volunteer information. Make them ask the questions. Let's move on down the list. Walking out before it's complete. Kind of goes with arguing with the attorney. we've had situations where the injured worker. Got upset with questions that were being asked and decided to walk out of the deposition. Now, if you walk out and leav