Worker’s Compensation Insurance Company Objections – What Were You Doing Over the Weekend?
In a five-day workweek, statistically one fifth (or 20%) of work injuries will occur on a Monday, and about 10% of the total injuries will occur on Monday morning. Nonetheless, insurance companies handling workers compensation claims may view claims occurring on a Monday (especially those in the morning) as being more suspect than those made on other days of the week.
The reason for this suspicion is that insurance companies know if a worker was injured over the weekend – perhaps as the result of playing sports, engaging in household activities, or even doing something like lifting heavy furniture – the worker is not entitled to worker’s compensation benefits, since the injury will not have been work related. They want to make sure that a worker did not become injured over the weekend, then somehow make it to work on a Monday morning, and then claim that they became injured on the job.
Trying to Make a Case of a Worker Being Inured Over the Weekend
In some claims, insurance companies will want to conduct a more extensive investigation in terms of what activities a worker may have been engaged in prior to being injured, particularly for Monday morning injuries. As an example, they may want to know what activities the worker was engaged in over the weekend – such as if the worker may have been helping a friend move. What they really want to do is to raise suspicion that the injury occurred outside of work hours.
They may even claim that the worker did not even realize that they in fact were injured over the weekend. In the case of helping a friend move, the insurance company may claim that the worker actually was injured over the weekend, but that the injury itself did not become manifested until the worker engaged in a strenuous activity at work, such as lifting a heavy box. The insurance company thus may claim because “it may have been possible” that the worker was actually injured over the weekend, the worker’s claim for compensation should be denied.
Rebutting an Insurance Company’s Claim of an Injury Occurring Outside of Work
Whenever there is a case to be made that a worker may possibly have been injured outside of work, it can be expected that the insurance company will make such claim, and therefore seek to deny workers’ compensation benefits. We challenge such wrongful assertions.
For instance, it is not enough to simply assert that in injury “may” have occurred while a worker was engaging in activities over the weekend, particularly if there is a credible circumstance under which the worker actually was injured on the job. As a result, simply making the assertion that the injury was not work related without any solid evidence of the same should not preclude an injured worker from receiving the full benefits for the work injury.
Why Do Insurance Companies Make Claims They Cannot Prove?
Nonetheless, even if there is a lack of proof, insurance companies will still try to make the claim that the injury was not work related. They will say, for example, that helping a friend move furniture cause the injury, even though there is nothing to collaborate that in injury occurred. What they want to do is to introduce uncertainty into the compensation process so that they can get an injured worker to settle for much less than what the worker is entitled to.
Our firm takes on insurance companies when they seek to make these false claims. Their lawyers know that we will not let such untrue claims go unchallenged.
If you been severely injured on the job, especially in what is known as a “soft tissue” injury (such as a strained back, neck, or shoulder), the adjuster for the insurance company may very well question when your injury actually occurred, or if you’re injury was the result of an injury that may have occurred many years in the past. Our firm will be there to represent your interests and to make sure that you receive the full benefits to which you are entitled.
To get started, please call our firm today for a free consultation. There is no fee for our firm unless you recover.
