Ty Wilson Law Podcast

What is light duty? So, if you've been injured on the job, and you go see a doctor and the doctor says, you know, he can tell you one of three things. He can say I'm gonna take you out of work completely. That's pretty straightforward that means you can't work. You wanna get that work status report or excuse. And share it with your employer. Or two and this happens more often than not. He says, "You know you're injured" "I want you to stay off this leg." "Or you've hurt your back." "So, I don't want you lifting." "I don't want you standing for a long time." "I don't want you sitting for a long time." "I don't want you bending stooping kneeling etc." They make the decision. No lifting more than so much weight. All of that is called LIGHT DUTY. Light duty has many terms. It can be "light duty". It can be "limited duty". It can be "modified duty". It can be "sedentary duty". A lot of people don't understand that "sedentary duty" is also a form of "light duty". Any type of work where the doctor says, "I think you can go back to work but here are your restrictions." That is considered light limited or modified duty, for the record. The other or third thing that the doctor can say is, "I think you're full duty." "You can do everything you were doing beforehand." And so the three work statuses again; Out of work; Light duty; and then full duty. If they take you out light duty, then the question is you share that report with your employer. Can they accommodate your light duty restrictions? If they cannot, then you may be entitled to weekly checks. If they can accommodate your light duty work restrictions, then you likely should try to go back and see if you can perform that type of work. If you can't, well, then you need to contact and go back to the doctor's office. Let them know what aggravates the injury or what causes you problems on his form of life duty. And in theory, he's supposed to change those restrictions. Well, they have me sitting all day. Okay, well, I'm gonna limit your sitting to so many hours a day. Or stand and sit as is comfortable. That's what should happen. Does it always happen that way? No. But in a perfect world, that's what's supposed to happen. And then at some point, either condition gets better and your restrictions get heavier and heavier. Meaning the doctors goes from no lifting more than 5 pounds to 10 pounds to 25 pounds now you're at 50 pounds. Or you're allowed to sit longer, stand longer, whatever the doctor decides. But the idea is that you get the medical care you need to increase your light duty restrictions to some point be a full duty or to be a pretty heavy duty lifting. We've seen some where you can lift 50 pounds, no more than 50 pounds. Some jobs have lifting requirements much more than that. But typically, 50 pounds is pretty heavy work for most jobs. Maybe not construction. But in most jobs. And so, you might can get back at that point and do your full time job. It just depends. But like duty is that gray area. You know what happens when you're out of work completely. You know what happens when you're full duty. You just going right back to work. Light duty is that gray area,  where the doctor will say, "Don't want you doing this, don't want you doing that..." And then the employer has to decide, "Do we want you to come back?" "Do we have a job for you with those restrictions?" If they do you're likely gonna go back, if they don't, then you're likely going home. And the question is "How long are you gonna be on those light duty restrictions?" That's gonna be up to the medical providers that see you and treat with you. Sometimes it's physical therapy involved but usually it's what's called your authorized treating physician that's the doctor in the workers compensation claim that will make the determination of your work status, and make the determination, if you need further care, if you need diagnostic testing, so forth. That's why choosing the right doctor can be a real critic

Workers compensation segregation. So, what is that? Well, that comes into play whenever you have both a work injury and a personal injury claim. And so, the segregation part is if workers compensation pays for your medical care, and they provide you medical care they have arguably what's called a “right of segregation”. Meaning that they can collect the money that they've spent on your behalf on of your claim. From your personal injury settlement now that's in theory. So, what does the law say? The law says that in order for workers compensation to be able to collect from your personal injury claim, you have to be completely compensated for all economic and noneconomic damages. And so, what does that mean? Well, economic damages are pretty straightforward that is the medical care that's provided in the loss wages. Now, remember in a workers compensation claim, you're not paid your full loss wages you're paid 67% of your average weekly wage. So, there is some sort of offset there but more importantly in your non economic damages. Did you fully recover? A lot of if the insurance workers compensation insurance carriers going to be able to collect. It's gonna be based upon; Did you fully recover? Are you back 100%? If so, there may be a possibility that they could recover. However, most of the time it's very difficult for them and I mean when I say “them”, the workers compensation insurance carrier to crew that you as the injured worker have been completely compensated of all economic and noneconomic damages. But most of the time, that is a very high hurdle to overcome. Hope this information has been helpful and we'll see you on the next video.

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I received a call the other day about someone who was handling their own car wreck claim. And they were confused. They were getting contacted by the at fault insurance carrier, trying to settle the claim. But insurance carrier said, "well, we have a health insurance lean and we're gonna have to pay them from any type of settlement." and so they reached out to me to ask, 'what is that about?' well, even though you pay your health insurance company premiums, some of them may have the right to be paid back whatever they pay out on your behalf. If you are going to recover from a car wreck claim. For specific information you really need the policy language. And you need to speak with an attorney who handles personal injury matters, who is well versed in the law. As there are different types of health insurance there. What are known as arisa based and non arisa based. And that can have a that could be a very important on determining if they are entitled to be paid back. Stay safe!

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So when you're in a car accident, there's really two different things you have to worry about. You have to worry about the financial aspect of it and of course the physical aspect of it. Physically, if you're injured in a car wreck, you're hurting you might not know how to get back to being who you were before the wreck. But what a lot of people don't think about initially at least is financially. And there are ways to protect yourself financially speaking. It is almost impossible to control the other driver from running into you running into the back of you running a red light you. Can do as many defensive driving techniques as possible. But the more you're on the road the more you're exposed and more likely that something will happen at some point in time. And so what is important and what's critical that you try to plan ahead of time in case that happens? Kind of the Boy Scout always be prepared. Look into uninsured motorist coverage. That's the type of coverage that will protect you if the other person who hits you doesn't have any insurance and you're left holding the bag. Atleast with that type of insurance coverage as long as you have an adequate amount based upon your injuries. Then you should be protecting yourself or be able to protect yourself I should say from the financial devastation that can come with high medical bills. As statistics show that is one of the No. 1 reason that people have to file for bankruptcy. Stay safe, but if you have any questions you should reach out to whoever provides you insurance coverage. You want as much uninsured motorist coverage also called UM coverage also called underinsured motorist coverage as you can possibly afford. Stay safe! And if you have specific questions about this video feel free to contact me. Thank you! 

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Workers compensation segregation. So, what is that? Well, that comes into play whenever you have both a work injury and a personal injury claim. And so, the segregation part is if workers compensation pays for your medical care, and they provide you medical care they have arguably what's called a “right of segregation”. Meaning that they can collect the money that they've spent on your behalf on of your claim. From your personal injury settlement now that's in theory. So, what does the law say? The law says that in order for workers compensation to be able to collect from your personal injury claim, you have to be completely compensated for all economic and noneconomic damages. And so, what does that mean? Well, economic damages are pretty straightforward that is the medical care that's provided in the loss wages. Now, remember in a workers compensation claim, you're not paid your full loss wages you're paid 67% of your average weekly wage. So, there is some sort of offset there but more importantly in your non economic damages. Did you fully recover? A lot of if the insurance workers compensation insurance carriers going to be able to collect. It's gonna be based upon; Did you fully recover? Are you back 100%? If so, there may be a possibility that they could recover. However, most of the time it's very difficult for them and I mean when I say “them”, the workers compensation insurance carrier to crew that you as the injured worker have been completely compensated of all economic and noneconomic damages. But most of the time, that is a very high hurdle to overcome. Hope this information has been helpful and we'll see you on the next video.

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We're following up on the other video about why insurance coverage is so critical in a car wreck? You get into a car wreck and are seriously injured  and the other party has the minimum level of coverage at least in Georgia. That would be a what's called a 25:50 policy. No more than 25,000 per person, no more than 50,000 per occurrence or accident. Meaning no matter how many people are hurt 50,000 is the maximum of that policy will pay. So it's critical if there's a minimum policy and you have to go by lifeline cause of the seriousness of the injuries. That's gonna be 25,000 like that is there any other insurance coverage. Well that's what attorneys do initially when they start claims is they're looking to gather any and all insurance coverages. That includes uninsured motors coverage and sometimes you can stack. So you wanna talk with an attorney quickly especially if you're in a serious injury. Stay safe!

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We're following up on what we had talked about with UM coverage. UM coverage stands for uninsured motors coverage. It also stands for under insured motors coverage. And so an example that would be if someone hits you and has no insurance well then it's your uninsured Motors coverage that kicks in. If they have a minimum policy, and you have serious injuries and have 60 or 70 thousand dollars in damages and they only have 25,000 in insurance coverage at the at fault party, then the UM coverage becomes under insured coverage. So it covers um money in addition to the liability. Now, there are several different types not the scope of this video but there's add on and offset. And those will dramatically affect how much insurance coverage is available. Stay safe!

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Wrapping up the topic of insurance coverage in car wreck claims. Why it's so important if you're hit by an uninsured driver, they have no insurance coverage whatsoever. Can you go after them personally will sure you can. The problem is, if they don't have insurance on their car it's may not be their car, one. If it is their car, it may not be a brand new car because they require insurance coverage especially if you're financing it. And so, these are things to take into account. If they have no assets, you can go after them all day long. But all you're doing is getting a piece of paper that says they owe you this much money. You can hang around and hope they hit the lottery but you and I both know the chances of that. So insurance coverage is critical. If you don't have uninsured Motors coverage there is no coverage and they don't have liability coverage, there is no coverage. And what does that mean? It means you're stuck. And now you're paying for something someone did to you and that is one of the No. 1 ways to go bankrupt. Stay safe!

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I know you've seen it. I've seen it. Driving around, you always see drivers doing ridiculous stuff. Reading newspaper, I saw one person reading a book. I don't know how you can stay involved in a book. But you see a lot of funny things on the road. Eating shaving; putting on makeup; and not always while the car stopped. So it's kind of kind of crazy out there. However, something you need to know is that wearing earphones or even earbuds anything obstructing your ability to hear or anything over your eyes can be a ticketable offense which could get you as many as three points. And so you wanna realize that, a lot of people are not familiar with that and you see a lot of people with either covered headphones or earbuds. And so if you're driving around you wanna pull the earbuds out you know take the headphones off. You really screaming to a police officer, “Hey!” "Give me a ticket!" "Tag three points on my driving record." And it's something that doesn't necessarily need to happen. Whatever you're listening to can wait. And certainly if you're blocking your vision well that you're becoming a danger on the road. And you don't wanna do that. You don't wanna do that for yourself. And you don't wanna do that for others. Living with the consequences of injuring someone else can be horrific. And so we all need to just take a minute. Do the right thing. Get to where we're going. Pay attention to the roadway, not to the phone and get there safely. Hope that information has been helpful. Stay safe!

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Did you know that there is a provision under Georgia law where you can remove Seven Points off of your driving record? How do you do that? Well, you can go online to the Georgia Department Driver Services and look for approved defensive driving courses. If you attend one of those courses, and then turn that certificate of completion in to the Georgia Department of Driver Services. And ask them to reduce points. They'll reduce up to Seven Points.  

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