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The Most Common Reasons Injured Workers Benefits Are Lost

Among the most common reasons for the employer’s attempts to terminate benefits are the following:

1. That the employee is no longer disabled. The employer will argue that the injured worker’s condition has improved to the point at which he is able to return to work full-time at his previous job or at some other job.

The employer will argue that the worker could find another job if they really tried. This is when the injured worker’s job search log is very valuable. If a legitimate job search has been unsuccessful, chances are good that the workers’ compensation benefits will not be terminated.

2. The injured worker has refused suitable employment. The issue here becomes whether the worker can actually do the job that the employer has offered to them. The treating doctor’s testimony is very important at this issue.

As soon as an allegation of refusing suitable employment is made, the injured worker should hire a vocational expert to test and examine the worker and his medical, vocational and other records to form an opinion as to whether the employment offered to the worker is in fact “suitable.”

While medical testimony is always important, the issue involving suitable employment and whether a worker is in fact employable is more within the expertise of a vocational expert. The vocational expert will, of course, rely heavily upon medical records, but this expert will also conduct vocational testing and study the employee’s education, vocational skills, government employment statistics, work history and other materials upon which to form an opinion.

3. The worker refused to co-operate with vocational rehabilitation efforts or refused to be examined by a doctor chosen by the employer. You should never let it be said that you refused to co-operate with vocational rehabilitation efforts or that you ever refused to be examined by a doctor. Resistance to vocational rehabilitation and to examinations by doctors should never be in the form of a flat out refusal. Such resistance, if conducted at all, should only be after close consultation with an experienced workers’ compensation attorney.

Please refer to the section in our book HOW TO GET TOP DOLLAR FOR YOUR WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIM concerning how to deal with vocational rehabilitation counselors and with doctors.

If you follow the advice in the book, you should not have to defend against an effort to terminate your workers’ compensation benefits.

If a petition to terminate your benefits is filed, you should call your lawyer immediately. If you do not have a lawyer at this point, you should retain an experienced workers’ compensation lawyer immediately. The issues involved will be too complex for you to handle yourself. The amount of money at issue is large enough to justify the expense of a lawyer.

For failure to co-operate with vocational rehabilitation efforts, the North Carolina Industrial Commission may only “suspend” workers’ compensation benefits, not terminate them. When the employee starts cooperating with vocational rehabilitation efforts, his benefits should be resumed.

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