Workers' Compensation Lawyer in Pennsylvania
Law Offices of Timothy Kennedy, P.C.
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100 South Broad Street, 13th Floor Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19110 USA |
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(215) 559-5003
(484) 997-1375
www.workinjurypa.com
Contact Tim Kennedy, Esq.
Law Firm Overview
The Law Offices of Timothy Kennedy offers legal advice and help for your Pennsylvania workers compensation claim.
If you have been hurt at work in Pennsylvania and you are considering a claim for workers compensation, or you have already made a claim for your work injury, you will eventually need an attorney. However, you sure don’t want to be paying an attorney when your right to benefits might not be at risk.
You need experienced legal advice as early as possible. You don’t want to put your claim at risk by not talking to a good workers compensation lawyer. What you don’t know will hurt you. You need guidance. You need to know what your rights are and how best to handle your claim. After all, your employer, the workers compensation insurance company and the company doctor all know the system better than you do. Don’t give them the advantage of being the only ones with expert advice. Your health, your well-being, and your family’s financial needs are all at stake.
I can help. Call me, attorney Tim Kennedy. I have more than sixteen years of experience representing injured workers. I will speak with you about your case and put you on the right footing to secure your right to benefits, to protect your claim, and to maximize your potential for the largest possible workers compensation lump sum settlement. My advice and guidance can help to ease the strain you are under when dealing with a work injury, struggling with an uncooperative employer or an unreasonable insurance adjuster. I can help take the pressure off of you and put it on your employer and its insurance company, forcing them to do the right thing and to fully respect your rights.
Year this Office was Established: 2008
Practice Areas
Additional Practice Areas: Settlements; Employer and Insurer Abuse
Practice Areas Description
The Law Offices of Timothy Kennedy provides legal advice and assistance in workers' compensation law:- Work Injury
To protect yourself, it is very important that you report your work injury to your employer as soon as possible. Tell them you were injured at work, naming every part of your body that is affected. Tell your employer you plan to get appropriate medical care from a competent physician or hospital. Insist that your employer report your work injury to their workers' compensation insurance carrier. If your employer for any reason refuses to do this or delays, I strongly recommend that you call me to make sure this does not develop into a serious problem for you or your claim.
- Workers' Compensation Pay
An employee injured on the job in Pennsylvania is entitled to payment of medical bills for the work injury and to weekly or biweekly payments of compensation benefits to replace wages lost due to partial or total disability. The amount of the wage loss benefit generally depends on how much you were earning in the year prior to your injury, including overtime and bonuses. For new hires, the benefit rate is based upon how much you were expected to earn. Lost earnings from a second job, if any, must also be properly considered and included.
- Company Doctor
If you are being told by the employer or its insurer that your only option is to treat with an unsympathetic or even incompetent company doctor, your injury could be made worse while at the same time your rights under the Act are being prejudiced. The same is true where your employer’s unfairly limited description of injury keeps you from getting care you truly need. You might also be denied treatment or prescription medications due to an insurance adjuster's refusal to "pre-authorize payment" – sometimes even outright lying to pharmacists or physicians to avoid approving an expense.
- Forced Back Too Soon
Injured workers are often made to believe that their only option is to keep on treating with a company doctor who may be in the pocket of the employer or the insurance carrier, who may not take your injuries seriously, who may not practice good medicine, or who simply may be a jerk. Doctors who work for “occupational health” groups are under pressure from employers and insurance adjusters to keep disabled workers on the job, or to release injured workers to full or light duty even if it's too soon and even if it could make their injuries worse. Some company doctor’s will even delay or deny appropriate diagnostic testing, just to stay on good terms with the employers and insurance carriers who pay for their services.
- Basic Rights
In many instances it will be up to you, the injured worker, with the help of your lawyer, to secure and advance your rights when you have suffered a work injury in Pennsylvania. But injured employees have certain basic rights under the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act which apply to all injured workers: You have the right to seek a second opinion - even within the first ninety days of treatment.
- Finding the Right Doctor
I have sixteen years of experience dealing with physicians and specialists in virtually all medical fields and convenient to your locality. I will help you in your search for a competent medical advocate, should you need it. I can also assure you that I will work with any physician, anywhere, who you feel provides reasonable and necessary care for your work injuries. I will confer with your medical expert to any extent needed to help him or her be a strong advocate for your claim. Whoever you choose to treat with, I will coordinate with your physicians to maximize your access to necessary care and to establish and protect your full rights.
- Employer/Insurer Abuses
Stated simply, you almost certainly will not know whether your employer or its workers' compensation insurance carrier are fully complying with the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act and related regulations unless you speak with a competent workers' compensation attorney. It is, unfortunately, very common for both employers and insurers to play fast and loose with the law and to cut every corner they can with regard to honoring the legal rights of employees claiming work injuries.
- Benefits at Risk
If you have an acknowledged claim and you are receiving workers' compensation benefits, the workers’ compensation insurance carrier may be very aggressive in seeking ways to cut off your benefits. In some cases, they may simply send you a "Notice Stopping Temporary Compensation" (often together with a "Notice of Workers Compensation Denial") and attempt to deny any disability relating to the work injury, even if you have already missed time and you are still disabled from your prior full duty job or you are working with restrictions or limited hours. You need to fight this. I will be in your corner.
- Settlements
Since the passage of Act 57 in 1996, Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Claims may be settled for a lump sum. Today, lump sum settlements of workers' compensation claims are common. In fact, lump sum settlements are often available even if your claim has been denied or is being contested before a Workers' Compensation Judge.
- Case Worth
Your attorney needs to prepare your doctor and ask your doctor just the right questions in a trial deposition. In this way, a skilled lawyer can maximize the points in your favor, while minimizing any problem areas. An experienced and savvy lawyer can even find ways to convert problem areas into positives for your case. All of this is hugely important to the goal of creating a strong record which highlights the favorable elements that help your case, while deflecting problem questions on cross examination.
More Information on Law Offices of Timothy Kennedy, P.C.
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Attorney Timothy Kennedy Profile
Attorney Fees in Worker's Compensation Case
Contact Law Offices of Timothy Kennedy, P.C.
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