Bethlehem Unemployment Compensation Attorneys
If you are an employee who has been injured at work, you may be entitled to wage loss and medical benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act. At Shay, Santee, Kelhart & Deschler LLC in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, we have years of experience helping individuals obtain the workers’ compensation benefits to which they are entitled. Workers’ compensation cases often involve complex legal issues, and you will need an attorney on your side who can represent your interests effectively.
If you have been injured on the job, it is important for you to notify your employer of the injury right away. An employee should provide notice to his employer within 21 days of the injury if he wants to receive benefits from the date of the injury. In order to receive any medical or wage loss benefits, an employee must notify his employer within 120 days of the date of the injury. Compliance with these deadlines is very important to the success of a workers’ compensation case. The more you delay reporting your injury to your employer, the likelier it is that your employer will argue that your injury is not actually job-related. Further, if you wait too long before notifying your employer, you may actually be prohibited from bringing a workers’ compensation claim.
An employer and its workers’ compensation insurance carrier generally have twenty-one days to investigate an employee’s injury claim before deciding whether the injury was work-related. The employer will then issue the employee one of three notices: a notice of compensation payable, a notice of temporary compensation payable, or a notice of compensation denial.
Under either of the two types of compensation payable notices, the employer will begin paying benefits to the employee. The benefits can be for wage loss and medical benefits or for medical benefits only. An employer will issue of notice of compensation payable for medical benefits alone when the employee’s injury necessitates medical treatment but the employee is not disabled, meaning that he can continue to work.
If you have received a notice of compensation denial, your employer has denied any liability for your injury. The denial could be issued for a variety of reasons, such as (a) the employer disputes that you are an employee; (b) the employer denies that your injury was work-related; or (c) the employer denies that you have been disabled or require any medical treatment as a result of the injury.
If you receive a notice of compensation denial, you should contact a workers’ compensation attorney at Shay, Santee, Kelhart & Deschler LLC right away. We can help you evaluate your case and provide advice on what to do next. If your employer has completely denied liability, or has only agreed to pay medical bills when you have also suffered wage loss, we will likely file what is known as a claim petition on your behalf. A claim petition begins the process of having your case litigated before a Workers’ Compensation Judge. Employees should be advised that they must file a claim petition within three years of the date of injury, or the right to do so will be lost.
The attorneys at Shay, Santee, Kelhart & Deschler LLC are committed to aggressively litigating your case to protect your rights and help you get the relief to which you are entitled. If you have incurred medical bills and lost wages because of your work-related injury, call our offices or fill out our online form today to schedule an appointment to discuss your case. We are here to help.