Frank Burns Law Blog

SEUS – An Insurer Worth Investigating

If you have a workers’ compensation claim and Southeastern U.S. Insurance (SEUS) was the insurer, you are a very unhappy person these days. SEUS was declared insolvent and taken over by state insurance regulators in 2009 and is recently under investigation by the Department of Insurance. This has left those Georgia Workers who were injured at Employers insured by SEUS left in limbo. To add insult to injury, the state’s insurance insolvency pool, which is designed to cover clams when an insurance company falls, may not cover many of these claims either.

This generally would leave the costs of the medical treatment resting on the employer where the worker was employed at the time of the injury. However, the employers, who genuinely thought they had competent coverage, may end up forced into bankruptcy if they have to take over the costs of these medical claims. This leaves those injured on the job without many viable or even understandable options.

The Department of Insurance and John W. Oxendine, the insurance commissioner, are investigating SEUS and the owner/executive M. Clark Fain III. It remains to be seen if any charges will be filed but even if Mr. Fain or any of the other executives at SEUS are criminally prosecuted, the company is bankrupt so that can’t help the injured workers.

If SEUS was the insurance company for your claim, you probably have a lot of questions and have received very little answers. This situation is rather unique and you will be best served by contacting an attorney immediately to help guide you through this process.

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Update on Myspace, Facebook, Twitter and Your Internet Social Networking Life

We have previously warned you about your activities on these social networking sites and how many defense attorneys are seeking access to your personal and private information.  These threats are real and must be taken seriously.  We have learned of a ruling from a State Board of Workers’ Compensation judge that has allowed an attorney representing the Employer and Insurer access to the personal information that people share in these websites.  This means they can see your posts, your photographs, and essentially everything about you.  I am sure that the attorneys representing injured workers will mount an attack against such actions but there is no guarantee that the Court of Appeals or Supreme Court of Georgia will stop these types of inquiries.

You can avoid any complications from your social networking by following your doctor’s orders regarding your restrictions, telling the truth and perhaps by not sharing personal and private thoughts on these sites.  You can be assured that everything you say and do, can and will be held against you.  You must be cautious.

Shannon Rolen, Esq.
J. Franklin Burns, P.C.
(404) 303-7770
Fax (404) 255-0183
www.frankburnslaw.com
www.jfblaw.com
Follow us on Facebook (Frank Burns Law) and Twitter (@frankburnslaw)

Conversations with My Doctor

There are many relationships that you have where the conversations you engage in are private and privileged:  attorneys, preachers, and doctors come to mind.  When you have a workers’ compensation injury, your conversations with your doctor are no longer private.  The filing of the workers’ compensation claim essentially waives any private conversations you can have with your doctor.  After all, the workers’ compensation insurance company or your employer are paying for the medical treatment so they are entitled to know what is going on with your injuries, what treatment options are available and what work restrictions you have.

Normally, this is not a problem.  You tell the doctor about your physical problems and the doctor finds the solution.  However, it is what you tell your doctor about how you got your injuries and the extent of your injuries that can cause you problems. Let me first and foremost tell you to always and without question tell the doctor the truth. Telling your doctor the truth about how you got your injuries and the extent of your injuries is the most important thing that you can possibly do on your claim. Sometimes though people can exaggerate the extent of their injuries wrongfully believing that this will get them more help and possibly more money down the road.  The discrepancies in what you tell the doctors and what you testified to in your deposition can call into question your credibility as a witness, which is detrimental to your case.

For example, the doctors will ask how you got hurt.  If you tell the doctor you don’t know what caused your injuries, then it looks as if you are not telling the truth when you try to blame your on-the-job accident for the problems that you have. I cannot tell you how many times my clients have got into trouble by telling their doctors one thing and testifying to something totally different.  Consistency and truthfulness are very important.

The only way that you can get the doctor to help you is to be truthful by telling the doctor the pain that you’re feeling, the true extent of your limitations, what activities increase your pain and what activities decrease your pain. If you tell the doctor you cannot do anything due to the pain, then this needs to be the absolute truth. Many times the employer and insurer will send surveillance out to watch a client to see what activities they are doing outside of their home. If you claim you cannot do anything but they catch you washing your car in your driveway or mowing your grass, it makes you look dishonest. You won’t be able to get the real help you need from the doctors if they believe you’re not telling them truthfully about what is going on with you.

In summary, you must remember that anything you tell the doctor can and will be put in his medical reports for everyone to see. We absolutely recommend that you tell the truth to the doctor and if you do that, you should not have any problems.  If you have any questions about conversations with your doctor, please contact your attorney.

Shannon Rolen, Esq.
J. Franklin Burns, P.C.
(404) 303-7770
www.frankburnslaw.com
www.jfblaw.com
Please note our new fax number (404) 255-0183

How to Communicate with My Lawyer.

Attorneys and clients must remain in communication about the claim.  This is a given.  How much communication is too little or too much?  This is a harder question to answer.  Sometimes, though rarely, an attorney and the client will need to communicate daily.  This is really the exception to the rule.  Very rarely will the status of your case change such that daily updates are needed.  There are times that a particular situation occurs where the client and the lawyer should confer though.  It is these times that are the most important to discuss.

But let’s start at the beginning of the claim.  When you hire a workers’ compensation attorney like our law firm, we file the appropriate paperwork at the State Board of Workers’ Compensation electronically.  We either file a notice of claim or a request for hearing.  We also formulate a strategy on how to proceed depending on the issues at hand, the options available and the desires of the client.  When we file a notice of claim, we also serve a WC-102 request for documents.  The WC-102 form allows the Employer/Insurer 30 days to respond to our document request.  If we request a hearing, we generally serve written discovery requests on the Employer/Insurer.  The law allows the Employer/Insurer 45 days to respond to this discovery.  Though some Employer/Insurers respond immediately to the requests for information, they can take the full 30-45 days to respond.

In general, the first 30-45 days of representing a client involves waiting on the exchange of documents.  Though it appears that the first 30-45 days of representing a client involves little work, as the documents come in, we review the paperwork and sometimes amend our strategy.  You may not be hearing from your lawyer a lot during this time period until the documents come in.

Once the first 45 days are over, if a hearing is requested, your deposition will be scheduled.  Once the deposition has taken place, things tend to move faster.  Further documents, including medical records, are requested.  Sometimes we schedule additional depositions of the witnesses, doctors or schedule independent medical examinations with doctors to address the medical issues relevant in the claim.  All of this activity is designed to prepare the case for trial or possibly settlement.  Sometimes you will hear from us daily, weekly or monthly depending on how fast the case is moving along.  We also provide written updates to our clients via emails or letters in addition to the telephone conversations.

Where problems arise is with unrealistic expectations of how often calls should take place and how quickly calls should be returned.  Remember you hired a lawyer who is good at what they do and who is also busy.  Don’t call your lawyer every 5 minutes and expect them to be happy to hear from you.  You certainly would not want us to call you so frequently without any update to provide.  If the attorney is in the office, in general your call may be returned the same day.  There will be days where your call cannot be returned the same day it is made, but don’t be upset.  If your lawyer is in depositions all day, he or she will have a long list of calls to be returned and you will want your lawyer to devote the proper time and attention to your conversation and not rush you through the call.  This is another situation where speaking to the paralegals about your concerns helps speed up the process of your concerns being addressed.  When the attorney communicates with the paralegal, he or she can start working on the problem before returning your call.

The most important thing you can do as a client is keep our firm up to date about your address, home and cell phone numbers.  If we cannot reach you, we cannot tell you what is going on with your claim.  When we cannot reach you, any hearing must be postponed or canceled because the Court demands that your address with the State Board be kept current.  We can’t do that if we don’t know where you are living so please give us your most up to date information.

If your attorney is out of the office in court, meetings, or depositions, it is very important that you communicate with the attorney’s paralegal about your concerns.  Sometimes, the court appearance keeps us out of the office all day, which limits how quickly a response can be given.  If you tell the paralegal what is going on, then the team efforts of the paralegal and your attorney can provide a quicker response to your question or concern.  Our office works together as a team, so don’t be afraid to speak to the paralegal if the attorney is unavailable.  Many clients don’t like communicating with secretaries or paralegals.  Though the secretaries and paralegals are valuable and important members of our law firm, if the client prefers to communicate with the attorney then that is fine and we are more than glad to help.  If the attorney is out of the office in court or depositions and you do not want to communicate with the paralegal, then you will need to wait until the attorney returns to the office for your particular situation to be addressed.

Email is also a valuable communication tool that most clients don’t think to use.  All of the attorneys in our office use a blackberry device where we can see the emails while we are out of the office.  Don’t hesitate to send your attorney an email when he or she is out of the office.  Even if we are in depositions or in Court, when there is a break we might be able to send a quick response to your question.  In general, it is difficult to make a call during a break but an email is easy to respond to and doesn’t distract from the work we are doing.  But don’t just use email when we are out of the office.  When we are at work, we respond to hundreds of emails all day long.  Even when the volume of calls keeps us on the phone all day, we can still respond to questions or concerns submitted via email.

Finally, setting up a face to face meeting with your lawyer is an important communication tool.  Never show up unannounced and expect that your attorney will be available to meet with you without notice.  Always schedule an appointment!  The appointment guarantees that your attorney has cleared a particular block of time for communicating with you and you alone.  We use these meetings with clients to prepare them for depositions and hearings and also to talk about settlement possibilities.  Don’t schedule a meeting with your lawyer without a particular goal in mind though.  If you have questions or concerns, write them down so you don’t forget.  If you are prepared with the questions you have in mind, the meeting can be more productive.

In general, if you are concerned that you are not hearing from your lawyer enough, then call us, email us or write us.  We want to make sure we are meeting your expectations and that we are all on the same page of what you want out of your claim.