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045 What Is Workers’ Compensation?

045 What Is Workers’ Compensation?

Lawyers in the House with Montlick

Attorneys in Podcast: Jeffrey Kowalski, Esq.

Workers’ Comp is a complicated system, and can be really confusing to navigate–especially while trying to heal from an injury.We’ve got dedicated workers’ comp attorneys in the house to walk you through the system, and explain how they fight for their clients.

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The purpose of this show is to provide general information about the law. Our guests will not provide any individualized legal advice. If you have a personal situation and need legal advice, contact us for your free legal consultation with a Montlick attorney.

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00:05	ANNOUNCER: Welcome to Lawyers in the House. With Montlick. Wish you had a lawyer in the family? Now you do. Here’s your host. Veronica Waters. VERONICA: Welcome friends and neighbors to Lawyers in the House with Montlick. I’m Veronica Waters, and I’ve got a pop quiz for you to start off this week’s show.
00:27	VERONICA: What do Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, and Jackie Chan all have in common? The answer is what we’re talking about on today’s show. Now, we’re not talking to them on today’s show, okay? So don’t get too excited. They are Montlick injury attorneys. And they’re not today’s special guests on our topic. But you know, maybe one day they will be. In the meanwhile, though, we do have two amazing Montlick injury attorneys who are stars in their own legal right to be here with us talking about the way that they fight for their clients day after day
00:58	VERONICA: We’re going to start off with, first up, Jeffrey Kowalski, who is a hard charging hardworking attorney. He’s been practicing since 2003 after earning his juris doctor degree from University of New Hampshire. Yes, okay. School of Law. Came to Montlick in 2008? JEFFREY: That sounds right. December. VERONICA: It’s somewhere around there.
01:25	VERONICA: And clients say that Jeffrey has incredible attention to detail. He is very down to earth, always makes sure they know their options and he’s true to his word. He loves crafting, winning arguments and uncovering the nuances of every single case. Maybe a sign of his first career arc in electrical engineering. JEFFREY: That’s right. VERONICA: Am I understanding this correctly? JEFFREY: Yes. VERONICA: Okay, what got you from science to law?
01:51	JEFFREY: Wow. Well, electrical engineering, I actually first, you know, got into engineering, did it for 5 years after my degree. And then I thought, um, what would an electrical engineer be good at in the legal field? Because I always, since I was a kid, wanted to get in the legal field. And I went to law school because I wanted to get into patent law. Ended up doing patent law for about a year, didn’t really like it. And then found myself at a really small workers comp practice. Absolutely loved it. And here I am today.
02:21	VERONICA: What was it about workers comp that you loved so much? JEFFREY: I like helping people. People that couldn’t help themselves. That didn’t know the law, just were in a bad place, just helping them straighten out their lives, getting things that were owed to them, or due to them. And putting them in a better place. VERONICA: Okay. And you didn’t feel like you were doing that as a patent attorney? JEFFREY: No. VERONICA: Which, let’s be honest, it’s pretty confusing, I would think, anyway.
02:51	JEFFREY: It is… Yeah, much more technical. You know, there is, you know, there’s a need for that, obviously. But that wasn’t my true calling. I really want to help people. And even though writing patent applications is helping certain people in corporations and that sort of thing – there is a need for that. It just wasn’t my avenue. VERONICA: Wanted the more personal touch of the law? Okay, got it. All right. Next up, we have Chris Ostolski, who is a hardworking, honest and diligent lawyer who’s been practicing since 2005?
03:23	CHRIS: 2006. VERONICA: 2006, okay, and joined Montlick in 2009. He graduated UGA, and then earned his juris doctor at Wake Forest. Am I right? All right. Okay, his clients know him as a strong advocate for them who is skillful at finding ways to maximize the value in their cases and get them the treatment they so desperately need so often. And he always turns over every single stone, they say, to make sure that no detail gets missed.
03:51	VERONICA: How did you come to law? CHRIS: I always knew when I was an undergrad that I was going to go to law school. VERONICA: You always knew. CHRIS: Well, I got a degree in history and political science. So I either needed to go do something else with those degrees or go to law school.
04:19	VERONICA: So you were a political science major? CHRIS: I had a dual major in history and political science. VERONICA: Wow. Okay. And what was it about the law that called to you? CHRIS: I wanted to go to law school. I wanted to help people. I didn’t know what type of law I wanted to practice. And I think that’s interesting about workers compensation. I don’t know anybody who’s doing workers compensation that went to law school like, I’m going to go to law school to be a workers comp attorney. But anyone who starts doing it… I know very few people that have left the practice of workers comp to do something else.
04:49	VERONICA: You know, so I’m going to ask you then something similar to what I asked Jeffrey, Chris, what is it about workers comp itself that sort of gets you stuck into it and just like never wanting to let it go? CHRIS: It’s a very direct way to deal with clients’ problems and help people in a way that is… it can be difficult and frustrating at times, but it’s rewarding. In some other areas of law, you’re doing more esoteric things that are like, I mean, just what am I doing with this? And that’s not really something you deal with with workers comp practice, especially claimants practice.
05:21	CHRIS: It’s very clear what you’re doing. You’re very clearly helping people’s… helping people with their problems dealing with their issues and it’s not… I’m not sure what the word is, but it’s not too esoteric or… VERONICA: It’s a very defined sort of field, which has a lot of very intricate nooks and crannies, right? I mean, because my understanding is a lot of lawyers can do a lot of different kinds of personal injury cases.
05:46	VERONICA: But when it comes to workers comp, there are such specific things in that field that the more you work on it, the better you get. CHRIS: Yeah, I mean, every state’s laws are different with workers compensation, but I mean, Georgia is a very complicated system for workers compensation, but it’s also, I mean, at a basic level, it’s a series of benefits. I mean, it’s easy to explain kind of the gist of it.
06:16	CHRIS: But to actually deal with these cases and deal with the complicated issues that come up… it just has layers and layers of complexity. VERONICA: Layers and layers of complexity, which is why we have these two Lawyers in the House with us today and obviously you’ve guessed the topic by now. It is workers comp and that’s the answer to our top of the show pop quiz. Halle Berry, Bruce Willis, Jackie Chan, just a few of the Hollywood stars we all know and love, who have actually been injured on the job.
06:46	VERONICA: Halle Berry was directing and starring in this movie called Bruised. She got kicked filming a fight scene, broke two ribs. Bruce Willis has three quarters, I believe, loss, two thirds loss of permanent hearing loss in his left ear because of super loud machine gun blanks on the set of Die Hard. JEFFREY: Wow. VERONICA: Yeah. And Jackie Chan, one of our favorite action stars of all time, right? Jackie Chan had brain surgery to save his life way back when he was shooting a movie called… what was it called?
07:17	VERONICA: Armor of God, and he jumped onto a tree branch, which gave way, hit his head on a rock. His skull collapsed. Bone fragment went into his brain, and he had to go get brain surgery and look, he came out shining. But I don’t know if you guys, this was a little bit before your time in the law, right? But this is what we’re talking about today, how people get hurt on the job. Workers comp is the topic of the day with Jeffrey Kowalski and Chris Ostolski. Guys, thanks for being in the House with us. JEFFREY: Thank you.
07:46	VERONICA: That was… I spent a lot of time sort of getting to know you because this is your first time on the show with me today, but let’s start off with sort of the bird’s eye view of what workers comp actually is. JEFFREY: All right. Well, anytime you’re injured within the course and scope of your work duties, then you have a valid work comp claim with, you know, with some other intricacies involved, you know, assuming there’s the proper amount of employees here in Georgia, that is. VERONICA: And what is that?
08:15	VERONICA: Who has to have it in Georgia? You have to have at least three employees, right? JEFFREY: Correct. Yeah. In Georgia, the employer has to have at least three employees. And that’s, you know, the threshold, you know, and there are some other exceptions. Farmers don’t necessarily have to have workers comp coverage, and there are some other exclusions. I won’t go into all those today, but, you know, obviously contact workers comp attorney for the intricacies of those.
08:45	JEFFREY: But, you know, when you’re injured within the course and scope of your work duties, regardless of whose fault it is (it can even be your own fault) workers comp will go ahead and cover… well, I say, will, it doesn’t always, but they should go ahead and cover medical treatment. The three benefits workers comp covers: medical treatment, an income benefit if you’re unable to work due to your work injuries, and a disability benefit.
09:14	JEFFREY: That disability benefit is usually determined when you’re released from treatment, released from the doctor to what’s called a maximum medical improvement or MMI. And at that point in time, depending on the seriousness of the injury – not every injured worker is going to get a disability rating, but depending if it’s a more serious injury, if you have a permanency to that injury, a permanency to work, then the doctors will typically issue what is a disability or an impairment rating.
09:44	VERONICA: All right. So already, Jeffrey and Chris, it sounds like an intricate field, which I knew coming in that it was going to be, but oh my goodness, how would I begin to navigate through all of that? CHRIS: Well, you got to keep it simple, basically. I mean, so are you on the job? Yes. Were you injured on the job? And that’s, I mean, a pretty easy question. But I mean, you need to ask that as well because, I mean, sometimes you get a call from someone who is, I mean, they have symptoms that could be like posttraumatic stress type symptoms.
10:17	CHRIS: They’re harassed on the job… that there’s some kind of issue. And oftentimes you cannot help these people because there needs to be an underlying physical injury in order to pursue a worker’s compensation claim. Now, if you have a physical injury, sometimes you can get mental health treatment on top of that. But if this is just purely harassment or discrimination or something along those lines with no kind of physical injury, that’s not a worker’s compensation claim. Maybe another legal issue, but it’s not a workers compensation.
10:47	VERONICA: So, it kind of needs to be unfortunately accompanied by physical stuff most of the time. CHRIS: Yeah, I mean, it’s a system. Yeah, bullying is not necessarily workers comp and now bullying leads to a physical assault or something, then I think Jeffrey’s got something he can talk about there. But just words are not going to be leading to a worker’s comp claim. VERONICA: So, I want to… engage me, indulge me if you will. I was telling those stories at the beginning about these folks we all know and love, whose work we’ve seen for years and how they got injured on the job.
11:19	VERONICA: Can we focus this show on stories today? And really get your experiences behind the scenes of what it’s been like sort of going through these cases. JEFFREY: Yeah, certainly. And going to what Chris had just said, I got one story with one of my clients, it was a verbal altercation. It happened at work, that led to a physical fight and a physical injury, which led to a worker’s comp claim.
11:53	JEFFREY: Now, typically in the workers comp system, a verbal argument isn’t that… even if it leads to a physical injury, that doesn’t always necessarily mean it’s a valid work comp claim or compensable claim. The difference in this situation, what happened is the verbal argument was about the quality and quantity of my client’s work. He was complaining about, you know, he wasn’t keeping up, and he was doing shoddy work.
12:25	JEFFREY: And that caused the physical, the physical fight to happen. And the physical injury. And because of that, it was a valid compensable workers comp. VERONICA: Were they like pushing and shoving? Is that what was going on? JEFFREY: Yeah, the other coworker had shoved him to the ground. Basically, headbutted him and shoved him with his hand, injured his face and neck. VERONICA: Wow, so that’s a case that normally would get turned down.
12:53	VERONICA: So when you are asked, the first questions that you’re asking somebody are probably very crucial to determining how far ahead you can go, right? On a case. JEFFREY: Correct. VERONICA: What’s the one main question that you asked to find out whether I can help you or not? JEFFREY: What was the argument about in that case? VERONICA: Really? JEFFREY: Yeah. VERONICA: And that made the difference? JEFFREY: Yeah, definitely. VERONICA: That’s incredible. All right, we’re talking about workers comp today. And we’re in the House with attorneys Chris Ostolski and Jeffrey Kowalski. I’m Veronica Waters.
13:22	VERONICA: Coming up: the essential workers industry that’s been seeing more and more injuries. Stay with us. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8 a.m. every Sunday if you want to listen live on 95.5 WSB. VERONICA: It’s Lawyers in the House with Montlick. I am Veronica Waters here with Montlick injury attorneys Chris Ostolski and Jeffrey Kowalski.
13:51	VERONICA: Guys, thanks for being in the House with us as we talk about workers comp today and really get into some of the stories that you have encountered in your years as an attorney with so much of your focus in this really intense and nuanced field of workers comp. There is an industry that was deemed essential when COVID-19 hit the pandemic came and there was no question.
14:17	VERONICA: So many people were staying at home and some of us had the okay to go out and one of those industries was in warehouses and distribution centers, fulfillment centers. Is that what I’m hearing from you today that… were these calls are coming to you more and more?
14:34	JEFFREY: I’m getting several calls from, you know, I’m not… I couldn’t name names but… I won’t but all types of distribution centers, warehouses, sorting facilities. It’s such a high paced job. They got these conveyor belts going so quickly. They’re trying to keep up with the line. You know it’s real easy to sprain a hand. You know, something drops off the conveyor on, you know, onto a foot, onto a knee… So yeah I’ve seen a lot of these injuries come in lately with, you know, distribution centers and warehouses where they just warehouse the material as well.
15:15	VERONICA: Yeah, I would imagine there could be so many different ways, too, to injure yourself. There’s all this heavy equipment the forklifts, right, as you said that… things falling. What about all the repetitive motion? JEFFREY: Definitely. CHRIS: Yeah, that’s definitely… the forklifts are where I see, I mean, probably most of the difference. I mean, distribution centers have been around forever but it’s becoming a much bigger part of the economy, part of the workforce probably in the last 5 or ten years and, I mean, I think we’re seeing a rise in calls related to that.
15:48	VERONICA: I’m sure I’m keeping some of these companies in business because there was a time when I had, like, coming to my door Amazon packages you know two, three times a day. CHRIS: Okay yeah listeners out there, I mean, think about like what you used to do. Going to, like, the mall and the store… like people aren’t doing that nearly as much anymore now that you’re getting boxes delivered from the usual suspects. VERONICA: All the time. Quick question. What is this third-party claim thing that I have heard about? CHRIS: So, I mean basically say you’re injured in a warehouse, right?
16:16	CHRIS: And one of the things I’m going to ask people… who are the people involved in this accident. So if the only people involved in this accident are yourself, your employer, other employees of your employer, there’s no third party there. But if there is another company involved… Like say there’s one company making a delivery to a distribution center and that results in an injury with the employees of the distribution center. There could be a third party claim there. And I mean, there can be a third party claim sometimes with equipment.
16:49	CHRIS: So for example, I mean, the forklift manufactured by another company, there’s some kind of defect there. There could be a claim in relation to it. VERONICA: Let’s put a pin in that, Chris, because I’m really fascinated about how this can really unwind. We’re talking about workers comp here on Lawyers in the House with Montlick. We will be right back. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick. Join us 8 a.m. every Sunday on 95.5 WSB.
17:19	VERONICA: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick. We are back with you. I’m your host Veronica Waters here with Montlick injury attorneys Jeffrey Kowalski and Chris Ostolski and the topic of the day is workers compensation. When you’ve been hurt on the job, what do you do? If you missed any of these great nuggets in the first part of the show, you know what? We got you, don’t you worry about it. You can always find us online, on your favorite podcast platforms. Just subscribe to us – Lawyers in the House. Get a notification every time each and every episode drops.
17:48	VERONICA: You can also see our smiling faces on the YouTube. So tune us in right there, look up Montlick there. Lawyers in the House. We are there. You can not only see, but hear us at LawyersintheHouse.com, where you can find one stop shopping, including a way to send us your very same questions. And I know you might want to keep up with us during the week, too, between shows. So, you know what, social media is here for that @Montlicklaw on every platform. Hope to see you there.
18:17	VERONICA: Workers compensation, Jeffrey and Chris, when you’re hurt on the job. It seems like a pretty straightforward thing, but not every injured worker is going to need to hire an attorney. Let me touch base with you, Chris, where we left off, talking about these third-party claims. CHRIS: So one thing you want to determine when someone calls is, is there a third-party claim? Because you’re injured by a third party, you could pursue a lawsuit against that third party. You don’t have to leave your job. You don’t have to… to… I mean, do anything that would… affects your employer. And that’s often something that you’re gonna do.
18:48	CHRIS: Say you’re a truck driver, you’re in an auto accident. It’s not that serious. You want to continue working for your employer, but someone else is negligent and responsible for your injuries. You’re going to want to pursue that third-party claim. VERONICA: Workers comp and personal injury are separate things.
19:19	CHRIS: Yeah, I mean, so I mean, a workers’ comp claim, I think you classify that as a personal injury. Because it’s separate type of personal injury. VERONICA: But it’s a separate… it’s a separate type of personal injury, but it is considered personal injury, right? Am I getting this right? JEFFREY: Well, you can have both a work injury and a personal injury in the same accident. But it doesn’t necessarily happen like that all the time.
19:47	JEFFREY: The third word… we’re talking a little bit about third party claims. Technically, a personal injury claim is when you’re personally injured. Technically going to what Chris, I think, was getting into is… yeah, you’re personally injured in a work accident, but they’re labeled as workman’s comp, even though technically they’re under the umbrella of personal injury. But because it’s so specific, it happened at work, they call it, you know, work injury, work comp injury rather than a personal injury.
20:16	JEFFREY: Even though it fits under that umbrella. VERONICA: Okay, I think I’m understanding that. So it just makes me think of what I just talked about. Not everybody is going to need a personal injury lawyer when they have an injury on the job, but a lot of times you will, it sounds like. What is it that a good lawyer brings to the table? What do you need to… what do you need to know about your clients in their lives when you’re doing this? JEFFREY: Well, I think you need to know the basic facts of the accident, the injuries that stem from that.
20:51	JEFFREY: And how it’s affecting their life. And as Chris was getting into, you know, determine if there is a third party responsible. If there is, then you have two claims, you have a work comp claim. You have a personal injury claim, or a third-party claim. If there isn’t, then you just have a workers comp claim with your employer. And, you know, a personal injury attorney and a worker’s comp attorney will look for two different things in the development of their cases.
21:25	JEFFREY: So I don’t want to go too far and what into what, you know, a personal injury lawyer would look at on that third-party claim. But as far as the workers comp claim, you know, a lot of times you want to look at their… what were they making for the 13 weeks prior to their injury, their wages. Because if they’re unable to work, you use that calculation to determine their weekly pay if they’re unable to work. You know, you want to look at the nature of the injuries, what type of specialists they may need to get to for treatment.
21:59	JEFFREY: And, you know, again, the details surrounding the accident itself. VERONICA: So Chris, before we started… before we cracked open the mics today, we had talked earlier about this HVAC client that you had. Tell me about why that case sticks with you. CHRIS: So that case sticks me for a couple of reasons. I mean, this is a guy who really had a very serious injury. He was an HVAC tech and he was, I mean, really good at this role.
22:27	CHRIS: He was, I mean… I mean, they quickly graduated from doing, I mean, residential to kind of big, complicated commercial buildings. And he was doing some kind of thing where he ended up, like, falling down what was basically an elevator shaft, some fairly significant distance, landed on a concrete floor, a number of physical injuries. But by the time I talked to him, he had already had an attorney.
22:53	CHRIS: He had recovered from a lot of the physical things, but he had a traumatic brain injury and was having difficulty accessing care and called us sort of out of frustration with his original attorney not being able to deal with some of these issues. And we had to walk through, I mean, a pretty lengthy time of, I mean, getting him to different doctors. You had to see an endocrinologist and a neuropsychologist. And a lot of these specialty fields – these doctors are not super happy to treat under workers compensation because it controls the fee schedules of what these doctors are paid.
23:31	CHRIS: So if you have, I mean, sort of… I mean, the most common doctor for a serious workers comp injury is, like, orthopedic surgeon. And there’s a fair amount of these doctors who make it their practice to treat under workers compensation. But if you have these specialty fields, a lot of these doctors are much more choosy about how they want to treat this. And this guy was in a situation where he needed care, the insurance company wasn’t saying he didn’t need care, but it was just… Trying to find the doctor who would treat this person under workers comp was difficult and we had to go through a lot to get that done.
24:03	CHRIS: And then just kind of hand holding through that process that stuck with me. VERONICA: Thank you for sharing that. Because I do want to focus on the stories. These are really… these are people that we’re talking about. Every time we talk about a personal injury, it is personal.
24:33	VERONICA: It’s personal. Tell me how these workers comp claims affect employers. CHRIS: So workers compensation claims are not the thing that employers really want to deal with. And if I had just a few pieces of advice to give employers, it’s basically just be transparent in how you handle this. I mean, make sure you have workers comp insurance, that you have a panel posted. Someone has an injury. I mean, take it seriously. I mean, I mean, get them to one of your doctors off the panel.
25:01	CHRIS: The thing that I found that – and employers run into the most trouble with – is that they try to kind of sweep these things under the rug, right? I mean, they don’t allow the employer – the employee – to go to the doctor, access medical care. That employee then goes on their own and gets a bunch of care. These can lead to kind of messy, complicated situations. So it’s just from the beginning, report the claim. I mean, send them to a doctor you’ve chosen on your panel is what I would advise employers to do.
25:30	VERONICA: You know, you guys mentioned earlier how incredibly complex this field is. But think about how different it is. Every time you get a case from a different state, like you’re based in Georgia, but every state’s laws are so different. JEFFREY: They are. VERONICA: And you’ve got to know the nuances of all of them. That’s incredible. Jeffrey, give me a case that sticks with you. JEFFREY: Well, I have one that I had a client with a… didn’t know it at the time, but had a preexisting back injury.
26:01	VERONICA: Didn’t know it at the time? JEFFREY: No. It came out much later. You know, it was an accepted case. He ended up getting treatment for his low back. He got him… we got him over to an orthopedic doctor. They took an MRI. And the MRI revealed he had significant preexisting issues going on. Even with that, the doctor recommended surgery and it wasn’t until the employer and their insurance carrier – they hired an attorney to get involved.
26:36	JEFFREY: You know, got… sent a questionnaire to that doctor that, you know, we thought was helping our client. Got the doctor to flip the script and now say, nope, based upon this MRI, this is not related to the work accident. You know, he is back to baseline from the work accident. The need for the surgery is related to these preexisting issues.
27:02	VERONICA: So what happens in that case, when you…? JEFFREY: Well, in that case, we actually got our own independent medical evaluation. Basically, a second opinion, an Emory doctor… well, you know, a really good doctor in the specialty what we needed… we got that doctor and, after reviewing the medical record, reviewing how the accident happened, did agree that he did need surgery.
27:30	JEFFREY: Maybe he stated they need a little different surgery, not the exact same one, but that the work accident caused his current complaints, his current pain. He does need surgery to correct that. Which, in turn, that forced the insurance company and their attorney to sit down at a mediation. Now, a mediation’s where all the parties get together to try to discuss the claim to come to an agreement. And it’s really about dollars.
28:01	JEFFREY: You know, they had a doctor saying, no, it’s not related. We had a doctor saying yes, it is related. Either side could have lost in court. So we all agreed. Let’s sit down. Let’s see if we can work this out, mediate this and come to an agreement. Unfortunately, you know, the client decided not to accept the offer presented at mediation, albeit against my recommendations. But, you know, the clients have that right.
28:33	JEFFREY: And now we’re finding ourselves in litigation. And it’s just going to be a doctor fight. VERONICA: Did it torpedo the case? JEFFREY: I believe it did. Yes. It’s making… because now new evidence is coming out. They’re getting another second – you know an IME – or second opinion with another doctor that, you know, they’re trying to get just more ammunition on their side to fight it. VERONICA: How frustrating is it for you guys if a client just balks at your advice?
29:04	CHRIS: I mean, it comes with the territory to some extent, basically. I mean, I think you have to give people as clear advice as you can, but you can’t tell them what to do. I mean, what I tell people is, like, you’re in charge of the case. I’m going to try to give you as much information as possible to make you… to make a decision. I’ll give you a recommendation if you’d like to. But I mean, I don’t decide for you whether you want to settle the case. I mean, whether you want to accept an offer. I mean, that’s ultimately up to the injured worker.
29:34	CHRIS: I mean, that’s what they hired us to do is to give them advice, manage their case, not make final decisions for them. VERONICA: I would think how frustrating it might, too, feel for an employer who feels like they’re trying to do the right thing by this employee and then the employee’s like, nope, no thanks. JEFFREY: Yeah, and I think the employer in this case, they actually fired their attorney and hired a new attorney to kind of pursue this a different fashion, because they were hopeful it would have resolved at mediation.
30:06	VERONICA: All right. In just a few seconds, I got to ask, have you seen a case where an employer actually tried to cut off somebody’s benefits? It was like, I’m not doing this. JEFFREY: I have. VERONICA: You have. Okay. Wow. I am so fascinated. I didn’t know that I was going to get that answer. So, but you know what you did say that sometimes they balk at this. It’s not always so cut and dry. Workers compensation – the topic of the day here on Lawyers in the House. Coming up, the Montlick closing argument.
30:39	You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with mount lick. If you want to listen to our radio show live, you can hear it every Sunday, 8 a.m. on 95.5 WSB. VERONICA: Welcome back to Lawyers in the House with Montlick. I’m your host Veronica Waters here with Montlick injury attorneys Chris Ostolski and Jeffrey Kowalski. You have been waiting for it all hour long.
31:02	VERONICA: It’s the Montlick closing argument. Jeffrey and Chris, take it away. JEFFREY: I just wanted to state that the point of the workers comp system is to give an injured worker an outlet to get treatment, to select a doctor off a posted panel of physicians (with the 6 doctors listed on there at least), get his treatment, get back to work as soon as possible. You know, the weekly benefits that an injured worker receives while they’re out of work are significantly less than their full salary.
31:36	JEFFREY: So, you know, no one can live on that for an extended period of time. And that is the main goal of the system. Get them quick treatment, get them back to where they’re able to go back to work. CHRIS: And that’s the goal of the system. That’s not always the way it works. I mean, these situations can be varied and complex. And that’s why we’re here. I mean, that’s why I think… not everyone needs a workers’ comp attorney, but anyone who has questions can benefit from a free consultation.
32:02	CHRIS: We’re here, 1-800 LAW-NEED, answer questions, nationwide. Laws vary from state to state. So, I mean, this is… a lot of this is Georgia specific, but call us, we can definitely give you a consultation. And what I determine from talking to people is there’s certain people you have a very discrete problem. We can help you right away, and it’s very obvious. Other people, I mean, you have a situation that doesn’t require an attorney. A lot of people fall in kind of a third area where you have a claim, but it’s something where maybe we’re going to be able to help you.
32:33	CHRIS: Maybe we’re not. It’s going to determine what’s going to happen with the medical care. You’re going to recover quickly and go back to work, or is it going to lead to something complicated that you need an attorney’s services for? And the only way to determine that is to talk to an attorney. JEFFREY: On that point, I wanted to bring in a quick example. We were talking about stories earlier in the show. VERONICA: Yeah. JEFFREY: I have had a client, you know, slip and fall at work, fractured a couple of ribs, he had a low back strain, not a serious injury, but the employer was a heavy… really heavy-duty work, couldn’t accommodate his restrictions.
33:06	JEFFREY: So he was out getting treatment, but while he was out getting his treatment, unfortunately, he suffered a stroke, totally unrelated to the work accident, and now the attorney for the employer is trying to cut off all his workers comp benefits for this unrelated health issue. So again, these cases can get really complicated, even though the system is meant to be simple. Call a lawyer, we can help you.
33:33	VERONICA: Montlick Injury Attorneys, thank you so much to Jeffrey Kowalski and Chris Ostolski. Workers compensation, the topic of the day. When workers are hurt on the job through no fault of their own, or maybe it even is their fault. You are going to need someone to walk you through that. You don’t want to pay the price for an injury on the job. I’m Veronica Waters. We’ll see you next time on Lawyers in the House with Montlick. You’re listening to our podcast, Lawyers in the House with Montlick.
34:05	Catch us live every Sunday, 8 a.m. on 95.5 WSB.

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