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Representation by our Highly Rated Georgia Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Can Significantly Increase the Amount of Your Settlement

Nobody expects to be injured on the job. But it unfortunately happens. The truth is, every year thousands of Georgia's hardworking people file workers’ compensation claims.

When you suffer an injury at work you need to be smart! If you fight for the income benefits, medical treatment and settlement that you deserve without anyone in your corner you will not succeed. It will take a toll on you and on your family. Hiring experienced Georgia workers’ compensation quickly after your injury levels the plating field!

You May Think Your Employer Will Take Care of You, But Employers Look Out for Themselves!

You may be under the impression that if you are injured at work and you do not hire a lawyer, your employer will do what's right and what it takes to help you get through your injury. You may think that your employer will take care of you and your family. Unfortunately, many workers find that the reality is a very different story. The "nice guys" end up finishing last.

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5 Reasons Why Injured Workers Select Our Firm Instead of Advertising Attorneys

1. Susan J. Sadow or Heather Froy will meet with you for your initial consultation.
2. Most advertising firms hire a non-lawyer to sign you up. When you hire our firm, you actually know who your attorney is. Most advertising firms pass your file on to a paralegal who does all of the work.
3. You can always talk to your lawyer when you call. Most advertising firms will put you in touch with a paralegal or an attorney who you have never met.
4. We stay fully informed about your medical condition because we care about how you are doing. With most advertising firms, you are just a number.
5. We negotiate top dollar settlements because insurance companies know we will fight for our clients. Most advertising firms will not go to court. They will push you to settle your case as quickly as possible after they sign you up.

Better Sleep May be a Sign of Recovery from Traumatic Brain Injury

Recovery from Traumatic Brain Injury appears to go hand-in-hand with improvement of related sleep problems, a new study finds.

"These results suggest that monitoring a person's sleep-wake cycle may be a useful tool for assessing their recovery after traumatic brain injury," said study author Nadia Gosselin. She's an assistant professor in the department of psychology at the University of Montreal.

"We found that when someone sustained a brain injury and had not recovered a certain level of consciousness to keep them awake and aware of their surroundings, they were not able to generate a good sleep-wake cycle. But as they recovered, their quality of sleep improved," Gosselin said in a news release from the American Academy of Neurology.

The study examined 30 people between the ages of 17 and 58 who suffered moderate-to-severe brain trauma. Most were injured in car accidents and arrived at the hospital in a coma. The researchers found that patients slept better as they became more alert.

"It's possible that there are common underlying brain mechanisms involved in both recovery from traumatic brain injury and improvement in sleep," Gosselin said. "Still, more study needs to be done and future research may want to examine how hospital lighting and noise also affect quality of sleep for those with traumatic brain injury," she added.

SOURCE: American Academy of Neurology, news release, Dec. 21, 2016

Employers Experimenting With the Use of Wearables and Drones: Is This a True Effort to Improve Workplace Safety or Is It Designed to Reduce Costs by Monitoring Aging Workers in Particular?

Business Insurance recently published an article by Gavin Souter on the use of monitoring technology designed to transform workplace safety. Ostensibly, the technology is designed to enhance the ability of employers to closely monitor the actions of employees and to intervene to correct workplace behavior in order to improve safety practices.

This year, a small number of Amerisure Mutual Insurance Co. policyholders started using sensors, drones and wearables to monitor employees on worksites, said Gregory Crabb, president and CEO of Amerisure. For example, if an employee gets too close to a hazardous area, such as an excavation site or heavy machinery, the wearable will vibrate on their wrist, so hopefully it will prevent the accident from happening. Amerisure gathers the data so that employers can identify employees who frequently receive safety warning vibrations and can intervene with the employees and their supervisors.

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Construction's Accidents - The "Fatal Four"

According to The U.S. Department of Labor, of 4386 work-related fatalities in private industry in 2014, 899 or 20.5% deaths were in construction. The leading causes of private sector worker deaths (excluding highway collisions) in the construction industry were falls, followed by electrocution, being struck, caught, crushed or compressed by equipment or objects. These "Fatal Four" were responsible for more than half of the construction worker deaths in 2014. Eliminating the "Fatal Four" would save at least 545 workers' lives in America every year.

Falls - 359 out of 899 total deaths in construction - (39.9%)
Electrocutions - 74 (8.2%)
Struck by Object - 73 (8.1%)
Caught in or between - 39 (4.3%)

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How to be Prepared When You Are Sent for an IME by the Employer/Insurer

Georgia law allows the Employer/Insurer to send you to a doctor of their choice for an Independent Medical Examination "IME" at any time during the course of your workers' compensation case. Please be aware that the workers' compensation carrier is sending you to their doctor for their benefit, not yours! This doctor has been carefully selected. The Employer/Insurer will use that doctor's opinion to verify the opinion of your treating physician and/or to fight your claim or to deny a recommended surgical procedure. The following is a list of things you should be aware of so that you are properly prepared before attending a defense IME:

The examining physician may not spend much time with you;

The examining physician is not required to keep anything you say in confidence;

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Prompted By Severe Workplace Injury, OSHA Investigation At Georgia Nursery Reveals Deadly Workplace Hazards; Nearly $47K In Fines Proposed

Evergreen Nursery in Statham, Georgia cited for 18 serious safety violations after overturned forklift crushes worker’s pelvis.

OSHA began an investigation after learning an Evergreen Nursery employee suffered a workplace injury that required hospitalization. On March 18, 2016, a forklift driven by a 36-year-old worker on uneven terrain turned over, crushing the operator’s pelvis. The severe injury hospitalized the worker. In its investigation, OSHA inspectors determined the worker was not wearing a seatbelt. The agency has established a Regional Emphasis Program to reduce injuries and fatalities related to powered industrial trucks.

The following serious citations relate to the employer:

• Not ensuring workers operating powered industrial trucks wore seat belts.
• Exposing workers to electrical hazards from improperly repaired electrical cords.
• Not providing protective equipment to workers.
• Not developing a written hazard communication program for workers handling chemicals.
• Not providing written energy control procedures to prevent machinery from starting during maintenance and servicing.
• Exposing workers to unguarded machine parts and equipment.
• Exposing workers to falls due to missing safety rails.
• Proposed penalties: $46,900

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Travelers Releases Workplace Injury Impact Report

The Travelers Companies Inc., the country’s largest workers’ compensation carrier, recently released its Injury Impact Report, which identifies the most common causes of workplace accidents and injuries. Businesses spend $170 billion per year on costs associated with work related injuries and illnesses and these findings provide critical insight on how the numbers add up. Roughly 3.7 million workers are injured every year ins all public sector and private businesses in the United States.

Travelers analyzed more than 1.5 million workers’ compensation claims filed between 2010 and 2014 from a variety of business sizes and industries and discovered that the most frequent causes of workplace injuries included:

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Spinal Infections Are Rare But Immediate Treatment is Critical to Recovery

Most chronic back pain has a common cause: muscle strain, a bulging disk or arthritis, for instance. But rarely, the culprit is a spinal infection called native vertebral osteomyelitis, a serious condition that affects mostly adults 50 and older. Because the infection is so rare, and back pain so common, a vertebral osteomyelitis diagnosis is often delayed—and the consequences can be dire. If left untreated, the infection can eventually lead to paralysis or even death.

Each year, up to six in 100,000 people are diagnosed with vertebral osteomyelitis (sometimes called discitis), in which bacteria—usually Staphylococcus aureus—enter the bloodstream and become lodged in a spinal disk, causing severe persistent pain that’s typically worse at night. Risk factors for vertebral osteomyelitis include degenerative spine disease, previous spine surgery, diabetes, steroid therapy, a compromised immune system, hemodialysis therapy, placement of an indwelling central catheter and intravenous drug use.

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How Depression Can Impact Low Back Surgery Outcomes

How you feel before having surgery for low back pain makes a difference in how you’ll feel afterward. Recent studies have focused on finding factors that can predict how effective surgery will be. It seems that social and psychological issues, such as depression and anxiety, are important predictors.

In a study published last year in The Spine Journal, researchers used data from 919 patients with a mean age of 59.6 years to determine the levels of pre-surgery depression and lower back pain not related to trauma or cancer.

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