My question involves workers compensation law for the state of: Alabama
This is a question in the state of Alabama
Ok this will be very long winded as I want to give as much information as possible, First I will be up front and state I have been told I have some neck degeneration previous to this injury. The degeneration was very minor and stated it was normal wear and tear from a 37 year old and nothing major. It was discovored around 2 years ago.
On October 16th, 2014 I was unloading an appliance truck and I was pinned to the trailer wall when a range fell on top of me. The incident happened because the opening manager pulled the second member off the truck to work doing something and forced me to unload the truck by myself, against company policy, without the helper to be able to use the proper team lifting. I reported the injury to the manager immediately.
Over the next 2 days I reported the injury to 4 different managers in the store, but was never able to get a First Report of Injury made at store level. On the 3rd day I sent an email to corportate to report the injury and placed my direct manager as the CC in the email. Eventually corporate responded that the injury must be reported and the report filed at the store level and my manager was sent the email as well. I was still unable to get the report filed from the store level. I have contacted Alabama Department of Labor and district level with the company to attempt to get the report filed.
Over the next 2 months I continued to work while gettin treatment from doctors out of my own pocket. The reason this was out of my own pocket was that even though attempting to report to store level they refused to report the injury and when informing them I needed medical treatment they did not send me to the company doctor. This had me selecting and seeing a doctor myself or not get treated at all. My first visit to a physician was on October 19th, 2014 to see an after care clinic as pain became pretty severe.
In November I eventually went to see a family physician as the conditions were continiung to decline with my health since the after care and pain medication from them was not working at all. I was sent to a MRI and was discovored that I have multiple broad-based bulging discs in my neck that were compressing the nerve roots causing major pain and lack of motion. The issues are the discs between C3-4, C4-5, and C5-6. The compression is down to 6mm out of the normal 18mm normal. I was placed on light duty with major restrictions since the company had been refusing the original light duty from the previous docotor and forcing me to work full duty. When I reported the light duty restrictions I was forced to take an unpaid FMLA from work to "save my job".
Since the discovery I was sent to an Orthopaedic on referral from the family physician, who sent me to a neurosurgeon, who sent me to take multiple weeks of physical therapy. The day my light duty restrictions were lifted from the family physician I was allowed to work even though I was still receiving treatment for my neck. On my third day after returning to work I re-aggrivated the injury because they had me moving refrigerators around the warehouse with a dolley. This was Christmas Eve and I spent the day in the emergency room after leaving work early.
The ER attending placed me out of work until I was able to get back in to get a second opinion on the condition on my neck. I resported to work and told them I was being sent to another physician and that I was going to my physical therapy that Monday to see about returning to work. The pt allowed me to return, but was told no lifting until I was able to get into the orthopaedic. I went to work the next day and was sent home with the reasoning "we have no work fitting those restrictions". I went in to the orthopaedic for the second opinion and was immedaitely placed on extreme light duty and scheduled for an Epidural Block. I returned to work with the restrictions and was forced to take an unpaid LAO once again because they had no work meeting those light duty restrictions.
We are now in January and I've been injured since October and the company is now wanting to dispute I was injured on the job and the extent of my injuries. They are also disputing the medical care liabilities as I did not go to the company provided physician even though they refused to send me to the company physician. They are also trying to state that I did not take a drug test when the injury occured, but there was never a request to take a drug screen. I told them when I went to the first physician they did blood work and checked for many things including drugs and alcohol and they were welcome to the results of the test, but they are refusing.
I have obtained an attorney, at this point, but I am more in the lines of trying to figure out what else I need to do. I have only been able to work 2 days dince December 5th when I was forced on the original unpaid FMLA and that was the 2 days before aggrivating the injury on my 3rd day back and being forced to take an unpaid LAO. With multiple months of no income and then the multiple months before the injury in which I was paying hundreds in doctor bills to get seen I have fallen behind on my mortgage severely. We are 4 months behind on the house payment and they are talking about foreclosing on the house and I am still looking at a possibility of having major neck surgery due to the compression and range of motion issues.
I have Short Term Disability insurance from my place of employment, but as this was an on the job injury they will not look at the claim becuase I have to be denied workman's Compensation in writing before Short Term Disability can be filed. As the report by the company was never filed there is no denial letter. This is an absolute disaster I have been dealing with for months and I am completely clueless on what steps I can take. I'm doing all I can to not lose my home while still paying my insurance every 2 weeks to keep coverage while getting treated. I am just at a loss on what I can do to try and not lose everything I have while being injured on the job. I know alabama is strict on what can be recovered on workman's comp so my fear is after this incident I will not even have a home anymore after the situation is over.
Is there any legal advice anyone can give to help me try to save my home and all? I'm at a complete loss as I had always taken solice in the fact I pay for the Short Term Disability insurance to cover me in these situations, but right now nothing is working the way is should do to the company not doing it's legal requirement.
I am sorry for the length of this post, but I wanted to give as much information as possible.
This is a question in the state of Alabama
Ok this will be very long winded as I want to give as much information as possible, First I will be up front and state I have been told I have some neck degeneration previous to this injury. The degeneration was very minor and stated it was normal wear and tear from a 37 year old and nothing major. It was discovored around 2 years ago.
On October 16th, 2014 I was unloading an appliance truck and I was pinned to the trailer wall when a range fell on top of me. The incident happened because the opening manager pulled the second member off the truck to work doing something and forced me to unload the truck by myself, against company policy, without the helper to be able to use the proper team lifting. I reported the injury to the manager immediately.
Over the next 2 days I reported the injury to 4 different managers in the store, but was never able to get a First Report of Injury made at store level. On the 3rd day I sent an email to corportate to report the injury and placed my direct manager as the CC in the email. Eventually corporate responded that the injury must be reported and the report filed at the store level and my manager was sent the email as well. I was still unable to get the report filed from the store level. I have contacted Alabama Department of Labor and district level with the company to attempt to get the report filed.
Over the next 2 months I continued to work while gettin treatment from doctors out of my own pocket. The reason this was out of my own pocket was that even though attempting to report to store level they refused to report the injury and when informing them I needed medical treatment they did not send me to the company doctor. This had me selecting and seeing a doctor myself or not get treated at all. My first visit to a physician was on October 19th, 2014 to see an after care clinic as pain became pretty severe.
In November I eventually went to see a family physician as the conditions were continiung to decline with my health since the after care and pain medication from them was not working at all. I was sent to a MRI and was discovored that I have multiple broad-based bulging discs in my neck that were compressing the nerve roots causing major pain and lack of motion. The issues are the discs between C3-4, C4-5, and C5-6. The compression is down to 6mm out of the normal 18mm normal. I was placed on light duty with major restrictions since the company had been refusing the original light duty from the previous docotor and forcing me to work full duty. When I reported the light duty restrictions I was forced to take an unpaid FMLA from work to "save my job".
Since the discovery I was sent to an Orthopaedic on referral from the family physician, who sent me to a neurosurgeon, who sent me to take multiple weeks of physical therapy. The day my light duty restrictions were lifted from the family physician I was allowed to work even though I was still receiving treatment for my neck. On my third day after returning to work I re-aggrivated the injury because they had me moving refrigerators around the warehouse with a dolley. This was Christmas Eve and I spent the day in the emergency room after leaving work early.
The ER attending placed me out of work until I was able to get back in to get a second opinion on the condition on my neck. I resported to work and told them I was being sent to another physician and that I was going to my physical therapy that Monday to see about returning to work. The pt allowed me to return, but was told no lifting until I was able to get into the orthopaedic. I went to work the next day and was sent home with the reasoning "we have no work fitting those restrictions". I went in to the orthopaedic for the second opinion and was immedaitely placed on extreme light duty and scheduled for an Epidural Block. I returned to work with the restrictions and was forced to take an unpaid LAO once again because they had no work meeting those light duty restrictions.
We are now in January and I've been injured since October and the company is now wanting to dispute I was injured on the job and the extent of my injuries. They are also disputing the medical care liabilities as I did not go to the company provided physician even though they refused to send me to the company physician. They are also trying to state that I did not take a drug test when the injury occured, but there was never a request to take a drug screen. I told them when I went to the first physician they did blood work and checked for many things including drugs and alcohol and they were welcome to the results of the test, but they are refusing.
I have obtained an attorney, at this point, but I am more in the lines of trying to figure out what else I need to do. I have only been able to work 2 days dince December 5th when I was forced on the original unpaid FMLA and that was the 2 days before aggrivating the injury on my 3rd day back and being forced to take an unpaid LAO. With multiple months of no income and then the multiple months before the injury in which I was paying hundreds in doctor bills to get seen I have fallen behind on my mortgage severely. We are 4 months behind on the house payment and they are talking about foreclosing on the house and I am still looking at a possibility of having major neck surgery due to the compression and range of motion issues.
I have Short Term Disability insurance from my place of employment, but as this was an on the job injury they will not look at the claim becuase I have to be denied workman's Compensation in writing before Short Term Disability can be filed. As the report by the company was never filed there is no denial letter. This is an absolute disaster I have been dealing with for months and I am completely clueless on what steps I can take. I'm doing all I can to not lose my home while still paying my insurance every 2 weeks to keep coverage while getting treated. I am just at a loss on what I can do to try and not lose everything I have while being injured on the job. I know alabama is strict on what can be recovered on workman's comp so my fear is after this incident I will not even have a home anymore after the situation is over.
Is there any legal advice anyone can give to help me try to save my home and all? I'm at a complete loss as I had always taken solice in the fact I pay for the Short Term Disability insurance to cover me in these situations, but right now nothing is working the way is should do to the company not doing it's legal requirement.
I am sorry for the length of this post, but I wanted to give as much information as possible.
Workers Compensation Issues: Completely at a Loss of Ideas. Help Needed
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