Worker's Compensation

If you have been injured at work or in the course of your job duties, you may have a “workers compensation” claim.  In Virginia, the Virginia Workers Compensation Act sets forth the remedies and requirements for any individual hurt in the scope of their employment.  These statutes and regulations can be complex and the cases can be very fact specific, However, in general, if you have a qualifying workers compensation claim, you may be eligible for up to 2/3 of your average weekly pay, your injury related medical expenses and certain other benefits.  Although Workers Compensation claims are supposed to be relatively straightforward, many workers compensation claims result in extensive litigation and can be as complex as any personal injury litigation.

In addition, in certain circumstances where an employee is hurt on the job, the employee may be eligible to sue a third party other than the employer. Thus, it is possible that an injured employee has both a workers compensation claim and a personal injury claim arising from the same injury. Workers Compensation claims can also be complicated by the necessity to coordinate other programs including but not limited to Social Security, Medicare, private disability claims and others.

Wilson, Updike & Nicely has many years of experience in representing individuals in workers compensation claims. The brief summary above only addresses the basic issue of a workers compensation claim, but more general information on these claims can be found at the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission’s website at “http://www.vwc.state.va.us/”.

Our firm has extensive experience not only in representing individuals in their efforts to obtain recognition of a workers compensation claim but also in the settlement of existing workers compensation claims. Sometimes a one-time settlement of an existing workers compensation claim is in the employee’s favor, but the employee must be aware of the impact of settlement on any number of other issues including future medical treatment, Social Security, Medicare and disability benefits. In recent years, our firm has successfully negotiated final settlements in Workers compensation claims ranging from a few thousand dollars to $275,000.00.  

If you need advice about how to file a workers compensation claim or how to obtain workers compensation benefits or how to work out a settlement of an existing workers compensation claim, give one of our attorneys a call for a free consultation.