Workers’ Compensation

A denial is the beginning of the case, not the end of it.Disputed-claim litigation before the OWC

When a claim is denied, benefits are terminated, or the carrier simply stops paying, the answer is a disputed claim filed with the Office of Workers’ Compensation — a real piece of litigation, tried to a workers’ compensation judge. The firm handles that fight from filing through trial and appeal.

• Compensability disputes — “course and scope,” pre-existing conditions, and the defenses carriers reach for
• Benefit terminations — Louisiana requires the payor to give formal notice, by certified mail, on or before the date benefits are modified, suspended, or cut off; a cutoff without the compliant notice is itself an enforcement target
• Occupational disease and repetitive-injury claims, which carry their own timing rules

Every benefit flows from one number — and that number is worth auditing.Average weekly wage · TTD · SEB · scheduled losses

Louisiana pays roughly two-thirds of your average weekly wage while you cannot work, within state maximum and minimum rates fixed by your injury date. When you return at lighter, lower-paying work, supplemental earnings benefits can pay two-thirds of the wage difference for up to ten years. Permanent losses carry their own scheduled awards.

The firm’s routine first move is an average-weekly-wage audit — overtime, second jobs, and full-time status are the misses that shortchange workers week after week, and an underpaid rate is also penalty material. Want a first look at your own numbers? Try the free Workers’ Comp Benefit Estimator, then have the real records checked.

You choose your treating physician. Not the adjuster.La. R.S. 23:1121 · treatment-guideline disputes

Louisiana law gives the injured worker the right to select one treating physician in every field or specialty — and no consent from the employer or carrier is needed for that first choice. Being steered to “the company doctor” is not something you have to accept: when a carrier refuses to authorize your chosen physician, the statute provides an expedited procedure that puts the dispute in front of a judge on a fast track, without mediation or pretrial delay.

• Enforcement of your choice of physician — on the expedited track when the carrier stalls
• Treatment denials under the medical treatment guidelines — variance requests, Medical Director appeals, and judicial review when care is wrongly refused
• Mileage, prescriptions, and the medical benefits that quietly go unpaid

Late checks and stonewalled care have a price — paid by the carrier.La. R.S. 23:1201 · the “reasonably controverted” standard

Louisiana backs its deadlines with teeth: a late first payment, a late or denied medical authorization, or a miscalculated benefit rate exposes the payor to statutory penalties plus attorney fees unless the claim was “reasonably controverted.” Most injured workers never audit the payment history; the firm does — converting the carrier’s sloppiness into leverage that gets benefits flowing and cases resolved.

A comp settlement signed without the whole picture can cost you for years.Lump-sum approval · SSDI offset · Medicare · tort claims

Comp settlements are court-approved, and the drafting matters enormously. Federal law reduces Social Security Disability for workers also drawing comp — but a settlement written with the right amortization language can lawfully minimize that offset, while one written without it quietly shrinks the SSDI check for years. The firm handles both systems — see the disability practice — and drafts comp settlements with the Social Security consequences designed in, and Medicare’s interests flagged for specialist handling where required.

And when someone other than your employer caused the injury — a third-party driver, a manufacturer, another contractor — a separate lawsuit may exist alongside the comp claim, on its own clock. The firm coordinates the two so the comp carrier’s reimbursement rights are managed rather than discovered at the worst moment.

Comp deadlines run from the accident — and from every last check.La. R.S. 23:1209’s layered prescription periods

Louisiana’s comp deadlines are layered, and they trap the unwary. In general terms: a claim must be brought within one year of the accident; once benefits have been paid, the clock runs from the last payment — one year for most benefits, longer for some (wage-loss and medical benefits carry three-year clocks from the last payment); injuries that develop over time have their own rules with an outer limit. Even a filed claim carries a trap: left unprosecuted long enough, it can be dismissed for good.

The firm calendars every applicable clock at intake and tracks them through the life of the claim. If checks have stopped and time has passed, do not assume the claim is gone — and do not wait to find out.