Insurance company shows how long compensation battles can last

While companies and organizations do care about the personal safety of their workers, some can show their true colors after a worker receives a major injury on the job. While it is necessary for North Carolina companies to have workers’ compensation to financially aid their employees after an accident, that does not mean they will not try to find ways to hold back on what the workers rightfully deserve.

Even after you win your initial case and the court determines how much coverage you will receive; some companies will still not settle with the results and may try new methods to prevent you from getting maximum coverage. You can see a drastic example of this through the actions of a rogue insurance company in Greensboro.

A step too far

The Charlotte Observer recently covered an insurance company’s desperate attempts to minimize workers’ compensation for one employee. In 2003, the worker fell and suffered a severe brain injury that significantly decreased his intelligence and made him incapable of working. Though the insurance company originally said that his injuries were compensable, they arranged for the man’s teenage immigrant daughter to take care of him instead of sending him to the hospital. They also gave him weekly checks, though they were nowhere near the amount he deserved.

If that was not enough, they tried to appeal to the court claiming that the man was guilty of insurance fraud multiple times. Each attempt failed. These outrageous methods came to a peak in 2013 when they hired private investigators to follow the man and film him to prove to the police that he was committing fraud. The officers arrested the man in 2014, but the criminal case against him quickly fell apart as the company neglected to tell the officers that his disabilities were mental instead of physical.

In 2016, the man’s attorneys helped him sue the company for malicious prosecution. Despite multiple appeal attempts from the insurance company, the Industrial Commission ensured that the man’s compensation would last for a lifetime.

It may take more than one trial

While this compensation battle features extreme methods by an insurance company that would rarely happen to anyone, it does demonstrate the lengths some are willing to go towards skimping out on compensation payments. They become tough courtroom fights when the worker receives an injury that could impact them for the rest of their lives. Even if a company is unsatisfied with the thought of paying an employee who no longer works for them, they are still required by the state to do so if the worker successfully files a claim for workers’ compensation.

If you find yourself facing a tedious battle with the insurance company over injury coverage you deserve, a workers’ compensation attorney can help you prepare your case no matter how long the fight will take. Some insurance companies will try to find as much loopholes in the process as they can, so you need someone who can enforce your claims through every attempt they make.