It Is Very Important That You Tell Us And All Of Your Doctors About All The Consequence Of Your Injury.

The system for evaluating permanent disability has been radically changed by the workers' compensation reform. As a result, not only is the original injury important, but all the impacts of the injury are now more important to consider than they were under the old permanent disability rating system.

Common complications that are caused by the more severe injuries are the following:

1. Psychological problems such as depression and anxiety caused by pain or loss of occupational, functional, or decreased ability to perform activities of daily living (ADL''s).
2. Difficulty with sleeping caused by the effects of the injury or the psychological issues that in turn are caused by the injury.
3. Aggravation or acceleration of pre-existing conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease, or other medical condition.
4. If your work involved prolonged exposure to dust or dirt, you should consider if your lungs or breathing have been impacted.
5. If your work involved prolonged exposure to noise and you have ringing in your ears or difficulty in hearing, you should consider if you have a hearing loss claim.
6. Other areas of the body may be impacted by medical treatment. Medications may create side effects or other conditions that result in ratable impairment under the AMA Guides. Surgery complication may also result in other conditions that result in ratable impairment under the AMA Guides.
7. Do not overlook anything regarding your heath or its impact on ADL''s. It is your body, you know best what is going on. Don't cheat yourself out of benefits to which you are legitimately entitled to by missing potentially significant ratable impairments.

It Is Very Important That You Give All Doctors And Lawyers A Complete And Accurate History Of Your Current Injury And All Prior Injuries And Health Problems.

The following is a list of common mistakes make by clients when dealing with doctors and lawyers in Workers'' Compensation and Personal Injury cases.

1. Not telling the doctor about prior personal injury, automobile accident, workers' compensation claims and any injury that has occurred during your injury.
2. Omitting prior claims, accidents, work injuries and non-industrial injuries because the client believes that they are not relevant to the current case or because the client believes the prior problem was minor.
3. Giving the doctor an incomplete or inaccurate history of the current injury.
4. Giving the doctor an incomplete or inaccurate account of current non-industrial conditions as well as prior injuries, accidents, personal injury claims, workers'' compensation claims, claims for Social Security Disability, and prior non-industrial accidents or conditions.
5. Not telling the doctor about all their complaints and problems in the beginning of the case.
6. Giving different dates for the date of injury to different doctors.

I can't emphasize enough the importance of a complete and accurate history in your case. The value of your case is heavily dependent on the quality of the reports of your physicians. If these reports contain a false or inaccurate history, a Judge might disregard these reports. A false and inaccurate history is also very detrimental to your credibility before a Workers' Compensation Judge. Giving a false and inaccurate history may be detrimental to your case.

In many cases, the defendant will search the index system for past injury claims, interview co-workers and past employers, investigate your group health insurance claims or take your deposition to investigate your prior medical/accident/litigation history. They will use this information to subpoena records of prior accident/injury/litigation/medical treatment claims. If there are prior claims, accidents, hospital treatment, or relevant non-industrial conditions, the chances are high that the insurance company will discover them. It is much better for you to reveal this information now than to have this information revealed after your doctors have written reports with false and/or inaccurate histories.

Note:
This aspect of the case is the one that you have the most control over. If you give a complete and accurate history to your doctors, resolution of your case will be quicker, easier, and far less stressful for all involved.