Stress Making You Sick and Unable To Work?
A Reader Asks This Question:
My workplace was so hostile and stressful that i had a breakdown. I haven’t been able to work.
How does a workman comp attorney win a case for his client who claims stress at work is making her ill and is unable to work?
View the answer(s) below…
3 Responses to Stress Making You Sick and Unable To Work?
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Workers comp issues can become complicated if you have an employment contract that contains a stipulation to what you are able to collect on. Make sure you review all of your paperwork before filing any sort of claim.
When stress gets in the way, I become less productive at work.
I used to work in a medico-legal worker’s comp doctors office and I can tell you a little about it. It’s been over 15 years, so this may be out of order, but it’s the general gist of it.
First, you have to file a worker’s comp claim. If your doctor feels you are indeed ill due to stress on the job, he/she may start out small and order you to work a minimum schedule to see if that helps. If it doesn’t help then he may put you on temporary disability and eventually release you back into a work schedule. Some employers won’t allow you to come back on a temporary basis, though. You have to be completely cleared for duty.
However, by the time you need an attorney it’s generally gotten down to a pissing match between the worker’s comp applicant (you) and the defense attorneys for the worker’s comp insurance company. When that happens, then you should get an attorney. Your attorney will send you to be evaluated by their doctors and the defense attorney will send you to be evaluated by their doctors. This also is the beginning of another pissing contest. The applicant doctors will say you’re sick and the defense doctors will say you’re not. It’s the nasty truth of it. That’s why they each have their own doctors. The attorneys refer applicants/defendants to their doctors and in return, the doctors rate accordingly. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. They’re all in bed together.
In the end it boils down to the subjective complaints – your symptoms in your own words, and the objective complaints – what the doctor actually finds based on medical evidence. The doctors will then make an assessment on your disability. If you’re in a state of flux and still temporarily disabled, no rating can be made and you’ll have to go to have followup evaluations in 3 to 6 months, depending. Then another assessment will be done. It’s not until your condition can be rated permanent and stable (PS) that a final determination will be made.
And if a determination can’t be made between the two parties, then it’s off to court. It could drag on for years.
You can always find a worker’s comp applicant attorney and get a free consultation.