Moore Law viewers had a variety of questions about what to do after being hurt on the job as Cincinnati workers compensation and Social Security disability attorney Bernard C. Fox joined host and local TV journalist Deb Haas and attorney co-host Don Moore. Just as Don’s son and the guest for the inaugural show, Daniel Moore, is a fourth-generation attorney, Barney has a family history with the law as well. “Well, my grandfather was, I think he was the first municipal judge here in Cincinnati,” Barney said, adding that his father was a lawyer in Cincinnati for more than 50 years. “He’s retired now and I have a daughter who’s graduating from law school, so we’ve been around.”
Don began by explaining that injuries at work can often be complicated because the matter is “not always just workers compensation.” Barney said his first piece of advice is to be sure to report the injury.
“Most people will feel badly about their relation with their boss, their job, and they sometimes tend not to tell people what’s going on with them,” Barney said. “It doesn’t do a justice to them and it certainly doesn’t to the employer because the employer needs to know these things.”
Robert in Cincinnati had one of the first questions about workers compensation, saying that he had been involved in a truck accident while on the job but his employer did not have workers compensation. Barney explained that the state of Ohio mandates every employer have workers compensation and even if an employer does not have workers compensation, employees still have a claim with the state. “The state of Ohio will cover all valid injuries and make the payments for them,” Barney said. “They then turn around and go after the employer for back premiums and any of the payments made.”
Don then added that Robert might also have another claim in addition to the workers compensation. “That’s something that, if there’s a police report and they’ve determined that it was that person’s fault, you have a claim against the individual that caused the accident in the first place and you have a workers compensation claim,” Don said. “A lot of people don’t know that.”
Carol in Cincinnati said she had been injured twice on job, once in 1998 and once in 1999, after falling at work. She had received workers compensation and then gone through retraining only to find she could not perform the work. Carol said she was sorry she “settled everything” because she was now having further complications and wanted to know if she was able to re-file another workers compensation claim. Barney said that generally, you cannot do that, but then added that it depends on whether Carol had “truly settled it.”
“A lot of people are under the delusion, I guess, that they’ve settled their case when they really haven’t,” Barney said, adding that many people will receive a permanent partial disability award in one lump sum that leads them to believe it closes their case. “It doesn’t. It opens it up for another—under the current law—another five years,” Barney said.
The next episode of Moore Law is Monday, April 2, 2012, at 9:30 a.m. on WXIX-TV, FOX19. Leslie Kish, the Vice President of Operations at the Cincinnati Better Business Bureau (BBB), will join Deb and Don to discuss scams and rip-offs.
Moore Law Firm – Cincinnati injury lawyers
If you have been injured or have lost a loved one as a result of another person's negligence, you deserve to be fully compensated for your losses. The simple fact is that you should not be forced to pay the price for another person's careless or reckless actions.