An Injured Pennsylvania Jail Worker’s Evidence Overcame Her Employer’s Effort to Cut Off Her Workers’ Compensation Benefits

When you seek to receive workers’ compensation benefits, there are several key hurdles in your case. There is your original claim and an award of benefits. After that, you face another important hurdle if your employer makes a request to cut off your benefits. At all of these steps, it is very important to make certain you have a knowledgeable Pennsylvania workers’ compensation attorney on your side to ensure that you get all of the benefits that you deserve.

Marguerite was an employee who succeeded in obtaining benefits and overcoming an employer’s request to cut off those benefits after approximately 12 months. Marguerite worked at a county jail in western Pennsylvania. During a scuffle, an inmate and two co-workers fell onto Marguerite, injuring her right knee. The fall left the employee with torn cartilage in her right knee. That tear eventually required surgery, which took place eight months after the accident.

According to Marguerite, the right knee injury wasn’t her only harm. The fall also caused injuries to her right hip, right side, low back, and left knee. She allegedly complained of hip and groin pain right after the accident. Additional medical treatment eventually revealed torn cartilage in the employee’s hip. Marguerite’s doctor diagnosed the hip cartilage as being a result of (or a condition aggravated by) the workplace accident.

In Marguerite’s circumstance, the employer sought an order cutting off her benefits after roughly one year. When an employer does this, the employer has the legal obligation to prove that you, as the injured employee, have achieved full recovery. If the employer does not adequately prove this, it is not entitled to an order cutting off your workers’ compensation benefits.

For this worker, her testimony and the testimony of her medical experts about her hip cartilage injury was key. She testified that she noticed pain in her hip within a few days of the accident. The doctor testified that, after the hip pain did not go away after an ordinary period of time, additional treatment was undertaken, and the torn hip cartilage was later discovered, but it always had as its root cause the workplace accident.

When you are seeking to defeat an employer’s argument in a situation like this, it helps to have as much evidence as you can. Marguerite’s employer argued that she did not complain about a hip problem for several months. This employee was able to rebut that argument by pointing to her doctor’s notes, which included a notation that said that the patient was complaining about hip pain one day after the accident.

If you have been injured at work, you may be entitled to receive workers’ compensation benefits. To ensure that you get all of the benefits that you should, make sure you have representation from an attorney familiar with the law and with the procedural system of workers’ compensation. The diligent Pennsylvania workers’ compensation attorneys at Needle Law Firm have been offering our workers’ compensation clients knowledgeable advocacy and effective representation for many years.

Contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation by calling (570) 344-1266.