By: Michael J. McConnell, White Plains workers’ compensation lawyer
Fractured wrists are a common work-related injury in White Plains. These are painful injuries that often require immediate medical attention and time off from work to recover.
In this article, White Plains workers’ compensation attorney Michael J. McConnell will go through some of the most important things to know about wrist fractures at work, including:
- Common causes of wrist fractures.
- The 4 essential things to do after the accident.
- Temporary disability payments for lost wages.
- Medical care and who pays for it.
- The 3 critical things to know after a return to work.
- The process for getting a SLU award.
- Reasons why an attorney can help get an injured worker the compensation they deserve.
As always, this article is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not legal advice.
If you have questions about your case, you are strongly encouraged to contact White Plains workers’ compensation lawyer Michael J. McConnell right now for a free case evaluation.
Common Causes of Wrist Fractures on the Job
A broken wrist is a very common type of workplace injury. It typically results from these types of accidents:
- Slip and falls
- Trip and falls
- Car accidents
- Falls from heights
- Forceful impact
Generally it is the falling on an outstretched hand to break a fall that causes a wrist fracture. This is why it is so common in slip and fall accidents.
Four Key Steps After a Fractured Wrist at Work in White Plains
From a workers’ compensation standpoint, it is critical to do these four things to best position your case for the full compensation that you deserve.
- Seek immediate medical care. This is vital to reduce pain and heal from the injury. Not only that, but having early medical documentation can help prove the fracture was work-related.
- Notify your employer of the accident immediately. Under the workers’ compensation law, you must inform them in writing within 30 days. With that said, reporting it immediately (preferably minutes after the accident) is always best.
- File an Employee Claim Form called the C-3 with the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. Although the deadline to file this is within 2 years from the accident date, it really never makes sense to wait too long. Generally the best move is to file it as soon as practicable in the days or weeks following your accident.
- Continue to see your doctor and follow their treatment plan. Not only do you want to ensure the best recovery possible, you also will need ongoing documentation to receive compensation for lost wages.
There are of course various other things that could also be important at the beginning of your case. These are just the core four that are almost always going to apply.
If you have questions or would like to know more about what other things might be necessary on your case, you are encouraged to speak with an attorney who can best evaluate what steps are essential for you.
Temporary Disability Payments for Time Missed from Work
If you are out of work and the insurance company accepts your claim, they should typically pay compensation for lost wages so long as you have medical documentation stating you cannot work.
There are two types of temporary disability payments:
- Temporary total disability, which applies when the doctor says you cannot work at all due to your injury.
- Temporary partial disability, which means you might be able to do some form of work with certain physical restrictions but not your regular job just yet.
The most you can get paid through temporary disability payments is two-thirds of your average weekly wage subject to a minimum and maximum amount set by law. The two-thirds rate would be the temporary total disability rate.
Insurance companies do not like paying temporary total disability, so they might try a few tactics to pay you less. These tactics include:
- Sending you to an “Independent Medical Exam” which might not seem all that “independent” since the doctor performing it is going to be hired by them. If that doctor says you are less than totally disabled, your adjuster might try to reduce your pay by claiming their doctor knows better than yours.
- Paying an investigation company to do surveillance on you where they might watch you for several days to see if you do something that is inconsistent with being disabled.
- Watching your social media profiles to see if you post something that might give them a basis to stop your payments or pay you less.
It is important to remember how insurance companies make money. Basically the less they pay on each claim, the more profit they have.
This gives them an incentive to do things on your case for the purpose of saving them money. For that reason, you must watch them carefully and be mindful of the things they might do.
Most importantly, it is essential to stand up for the compensation you deserve when the insurance company tries to minimize the extent of your injuries or pay you less. Having a trusted attorney to fight for you can often be critical.
Medical Care for a Broken Wrist Covered Completely Through Workers’ Compensation
The good news for injured workers in White Plains is that they do not have to pay a single penny for necessary and approved medical care on an accepted or established workers’ compensation claim.
This is important for cases involving a fractured wrist since the medical treatment needed to heal is often very expensive.
Here are some of the things that can be paid for by workers’ compensation for a fractured wrist:
- Ambulance
- Hospitalization
- Emergency room visit
- Urgent care visit
- Doctor’s appointments
- X-Rays
- MRIs
- CT Scans
- Surgery
- Physical therapy
- Wrist brace
- Pain medication
There are countless other medical expenses that can be covered as well, but the above are the most common ones that apply for wrist fractures in White Plains.
Returning to Work in White Plains after a Wrist Fracture: Important Things to Know
It is probably fair to say that most cases with a broken wrist will result in at least several weeks to a few months of missed work.
When the injured worker does return to work, it is important to know these three things:
- They can continue to get necessary medical care.
- If they returned too soon and need to go back out of work again for this injury, they can still be eligible for further temporary disability payments so long as there is a new medical report saying their absence is due to the initial injury.
- They can receive a “Schedule Loss of Use Award” sometimes called a SLU, which is for permanent impairment or loss of functionality to the wrist as a result of the fracture.
Schedule Loss of Use Award for a Broken Wrist in New York
Plenty of cases involving a fractured wrist result in SLU awards. This is because SLU takes into account things like loss of functionality and loss of range of motion.
Even if you returned to work, your wrist might not be as good as it once was before the accident. If that is the case, your doctor might say you have a SLU.
Typically a doctor will evaluate an injured worker for SLU around one year after the accident. If there was surgery, then the doctor will usually do the evaluation about a year after the surgery.
If the doctor is of the opinion that you have recovered as much as can be expected under the circumstances and that you have permanent impairment, the doctor will provide a SLU percentage.
That SLU percentage will correspond to a certain amount of money that you are owed under the law, but it will take credit for any prior payments for lost wages while you were out of work. In other words, subtracted from the award is what you were paid for the temporary period of lost time.
In many cases, the insurance company is going to want to pay you less than the amount that would be owed to you based on your doctor’s opinion. So what they might do is send you to an “Independent Medical Exam” or “IME.”
At the IME, a doctor hired by the insurance company will evaluate you and provide an opinion on your SLU percentage. More often than not, the SLU percentage from the IME will be less than your doctor’s percentage. In fact, sometimes the percentage will be far less, perhaps even 0%.
The insurance company will then use the IME to argue to a workers’ compensation judge that you should get less money or no money at all for your SLU. They will try to discredit your doctor and minimize the seriousness of your injury.
This is yet another situation where a skilled attorney can help you maximize the dollar value of your White Plains workers’ compensation case.
An attorney can thoroughly and aggressively cross-examine the IME doctor during a deposition to point out why they are wrong and your doctor is right.
An attorney might also be able to show that the IME doctor was biased or simply did not perform a thorough examination.
Crushing the IME doctor and showing why they are not credible can be essential in getting a fair SLU award.
How a Workers’ Compensation Lawyer Can Help You After an Injury in White Plains
As noted above when talking about SLU, having a tough workers’ compensation lawyer fight for an injured worker can make a big difference.
Indeed, it is no secret that insurance companies recognize that attorney representation on a case typically results in higher payouts.
So how can an attorney help get maximum value for a wrist fracture? Here are several ways:
- Ensure deadlines are met.
- File important forms.
- Assist in finding a qualified White Plains workers’ compensation doctor.
- Monitor the board file to verify that the doctor is filing medical reports.
- Deal directly with the insurance company.
- Fight for the highest temporary disability rate that is appropriate for the facts of the case.
- Aggressively cross-examine any IME doctor that tries to minimize the injured worker’s disability.
- Negotiate a SLU or settlement if appropriate.
- Litigate any issues before a judge of the Workers’ Compensation Board.
Conclusion: Wrist Fractures are Painful Injuries that Require Immediate Medical Care and Can Result in Compensation for Lost Wages and Permanent Impairment
A fractured wrist is a very painful injury. If this happened to you at work in White Plains or elsewhere in New York, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation for lost wages, medical treatment, and permanent impairment.
If you fractured your wrist at work in White Plains or elsewhere in Westchester County, please contact The Law Office of Michael J. McConnell today for a free consultation.
Michael J. McConnell is a White Plains workers’ compensation lawyer who will zealously represent workers who have been hurt on the job. He is a graduate of Pace Law School in White Plains, a former NYC prosecutor, and worked exclusively on New York workers’ compensation claims for a major insurer for over five years. He brings a no-nonsense approach to all aspects of litigation while remaining committed to providing compassionate legal representation to his clients.
Call today for a free consultation if you need help with your workers’ compensation case.
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