Hi this is Brian Wiklendt with Garfinkel Schwartz.
I’m here in Maitland Florida in our office and I’m coming to you today to talk to you
about maybe three different recent developments that happened in the firm with clients just
to give you an idea as to how different cases work and progress how long some of them take
how short some of them are so that you can have the patience and wherewithal to get the
benefits you deserve.
Sometimes they take years.
Sometimes they take months.
But there are three different examples that I have that happened recently.
The first example is what’s called a stipulation.
We have a client who suffered from PTSD.
He still does.
Was involved in an IED explosion in Afghanistan.
His claim was denied because he didn’t properly notice the insurance company according to
them.
We went through some independent medical evaluations that we did on our own.
They went through an independent medical evaluation that they did.
What basically happened was in lieu of going to trial we entered into stipulations that
are signed by the Department of Labor that basically stated that yes the insurance company
has now decided and agreed to pick up that person’s claim.
When I say pick up we mean accept that person’s claim and what that person got was a lump
sum of the past compensation that was due from the last time he was paid.
They have to pay for his future and past medical expenses going forward and they have to pay
what his compensation rate is every two weeks indefinitely until something else happens
in the case.
So that stipulation basically says that they’re going to accept the claim in lieu of us going
to a trial with a judge.
So that case that case is now standing before the Department of Labor just being monitored
by us to determine what’s going to happen to him in the future because as of right now
he cannot work and he’s seeking treatment from a psychiatrist and a psychologist that
the insurance company finally has agreed to pay for.
Second another issue happened where we actually had to go to a formal hearing which we sometimes
call a trial just because lawyers call it a trial.
It’s the last thing you do in litigation but technically it’s a formal hearing with
an administrative law judge and those can happen anywhere in the country pretty much.
What happened there was after two and a half years of fighting and we to have to go through
the entire litigation process… depositions were taken.
This case was denied based on an independent medical exam that said that this person a
longshoreman could go back to work to active duty even though his back in our opinion was
still injured.
That doctor decided that he didn’t think the interpretation of the actual MRI was correct
and he wanted to issue his own interpretation that went against both the treating physician
and the radiologist that did the MRI and that’s what they held their hats on for two and a
half years.
So that particular client didn’t get paid for two and a half years.
He did go back to work at some point but we went through the entire formal hearing process.
Luckily we won.
That was in Miami and what the judge ordered basically was the same thing that I talked
in the stipulations.
He was paid his past compensation.
He was paid his past and future medical expenses for his back and whatever other residual earning
capacity he may be entitled to every two weeks which could be zero or it could be a large
number depending on what kind of work he can do now and he is back to work.
So there is going to be a fraction of that money that goes to him every two weeks until
something changes.
Number three recently that happened was what happens a lot of times.
Once a person gets to maximum medical improvement meaning they’re not going to be able to
get any better than they are right now the insurance company does labor market surveys
and things like that to determine what type of job a person can do if any.
Some of my clients actually get jobs but they get lower paying jobs that they can get overseas
because physically and mentally they might not be able to go back into a warzone.
That’s what called a lack of earning capacity.
Once a case gets to that stage this particular one was going on for over ten years in our
firm.
That person was getting paid every two weeks.
We got to that point in time and we got to the stipulation stage and over this last maybe
four or five years he’s been treated for various different orthopedic injuries and
now he’s at the stage where he’s at maximum medical improvement.
Well that means then both parties can then calculate what we think the value of his lump
sum settlement claim should be.
So what happens then is you set up a mediation or you negotiate over the phone and try to
come up with a lump sum figure to close the file out forever and in this particular matter
this person was again he was a police mentor.
He was in a bunker.
He jumped into a bunker and he suffered from a lot of physical injuries to his neck and
his back and he also had PTSD so that’s three different things.
Once a stage happens where everyone can reasonably understand what this person’s lot in life
is whether they can work again whether they can just do a desk job whether they can go
back to active duty at a certain point that’s when we can evaluate the claim and get a lump
sum done and that was done just here recently with a guy a very nice guy and he was happy.
The insurance company was happy and his claim is closed forever.
He has a nice large lump sum of money to live on and he doesn’t have to worry about the
insurance company denying medications here and there forgetting to do prescriptions getting
his checks late.
All those kinds of hassles he doesn’t have to worry about anymore because he has the
money in his own pocket and he can protect his own family with that money so a lot of
times it’s in the best interest of all parties to get the case done in a lump sum.
So just in summary the things that I just wanted to try to have you understand is those
three things happened very recently stipulation a trial and a trial result a formal hearing
and a lump sum settlement.
So those are the three different that we strive for as your attorney representing claimants
in these types of cases.
If you have any other questions like that regarding any of this stuff please call me
any time.
I’m basically available for free any time to talk so don’t hesitate and I hope you
learned something from this.
I appreciate you listening.
Thanks