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Yes, but the company does not necessarily have to pay for it. Under Workers' Compensation in Missouri, the employer must provide medical care to treat workplace injuries. However, the employer has the right to select the medical provider. You always have the right to get treatment on your own, from your own doctor, at your own cost. A Workers' Compensation attorney can help guide you through that process.

It depends, every case is different. The Missouri Statutes assign each part of the body a value of a certain number of weeks of pay. For example, an index finger is worth 45 weeks and a knee is worth 160 weeks. The amount of disability in the injured body part usually needs to be determined by doctors. You might receive a doctor's rating of 10% disability of the knee, for example, which translates to 16 weeks. Also, each week of pay is based on 2/3 of your average weekly wage at the time of injury, up to certain maximums provided in the statute. These settlement numbers are called PPD or Permanent Partial Disability. The maximum weekly PPD amount for a January 1, 2000, injury is $303.01 or 2/3 of your average weekly wage, whichever is lower. Employers often dispute the percentage of disability, and an attorney usually ends up negotiating these amounts on your behalf. Also, many cases have their own special rules and values, such as cases of permanent and total disability, or cases of hearing loss. An attorney can help ensure you receive fair values for your PPD claims.

Yes. An attorney may file a Workers' Compensation claim on your behalf and demand proper medical treatment for your injury. If you need treatment that the employer still will not provide, an attorney can request a hearing in front of a Administrative Law Judge to determine the issue.

No. For time off from work due to workplace injuries, Workers' Compensation must pay 2/3 of your average weekly wage for each week you miss, up to certain maximum amounts provided in the Missouri Statutes. For example, the maximum amount for an injury that occurred on January 1, 2000, is $578.48, or 2/3 of your average wage, whichever is lower. These payments are called TTD or Temporary Total Disability. An attorney can assert and negotiate claims for TTD as part of your other Workers' Compensation rights.

Yes. Make sure you report all of your pain and symptoms to the doctors on every visit, so that they can account for those symptoms when they make their decisions about treatment and work status. If you continue to experience pain and symptoms after being released, then demand that your employer continue to provide care. If your employer does not provide proper care, an attorney may file a Workers' Compensation claim on your behalf and demand treatment, or ask a judge to decide the issue.

Yes, in some cases. You may be entitled to a claim against the Second Injury Fund, which compensates workers for prior injuries that combine with current, workplace injuries. The Second Injury Fund will usually not make voluntarily settlements unless both injuries are serious enough to meet certain thresholds. Also, compensation is not based on the full value of the old injury, but only its combination effect with the current workplace injury, which will be a much smaller value. An attorney may be able to assert and negotiate these types of claims on your behalf, and help ensure you receive fair compensation for them.

Yes. Your employer can determine which doctor you need to visit. However, if they make you travel long distances, they must pay reasonable mileage costs. Also, you can always get treatment from your own doctors instead, but the employer does not usually have to cover any of those medical expenses if they offered their own treatment alternatives. If the treatment plan causes you inconvenience, you can request that your employer try to accommodate you. However, ultimately the employer can decide who to send you to and when, if they are paying for it. Also, it is important that you keep up with the treatment even if it is not convenient, because failure to comply with the doctor's treatment plan can effect whether you receive other benefits, such as TTD payments for time off, or further medical care. An attorney can help you understand your rights regarding medical care as those issues arise in your case.

Comply with your doctor's restrictions. Your health is the most important thing, and you do not want to cause an aggravation to your workplace injury by doing heavy duty work when you are not supposed to. Your employer needs to either provide work that meets your restrictions, or pay you TTD benefits for time off. Even if your employer terminates you, a judge can still award TTD benefits for that time period if he or she determines that you could not work due to your workplace injury. Also, make sure you report all your pain and symptoms to the doctor, so that he can adequately assess your restrictions. If there is certain specific tasks at work that are causing you pain, make sure to let the doctor know about them so that he can determine whether you need additional restrictions.

This is more of a medical question than a legal one. Doctors use their own medical judgment based upon their own experience and your specific condition to determine your work status. If you dispute his or her medical judgment, you can always seek other opinions at your own cost. If another doctor disagrees with the employer-provided doctor, an attorney can try to negotiate for changes in treatment or in work status on that basis. Employers don't always voluntarily agree with the findings of your own doctor, but an attorney can take the issue before a judge at a Final Hearing to determine your rights.

Maybe. In Missouri, the employer is not allowed to retaliate against you for filing a Workers' Compensation claim. However, in most cases, they can fire employees for almost any other reason. For example, inability to perform the job or failure to arrive for work can lead to termination. In Missouri, most employees are considered employees at will and can be terminated at any time. If the termination is truly retaliatory for filing a Workers' Compensation claim, an attorney may be able to pursue legal remedies on your behalf.

Yes. If you sustained a workplace injury or illness, your Workers' Compensation rights do not terminate if you quit or even if you are fired. The employer's insurance must pay the same benefits and provide the same medical care that they would if you still worked for the company where you were injured. An attorney can take the necessary steps to get your claim filed and keep it active after job changes or departures.

The attorneys at The Law Offices of Stahlhuth and Rudder, L.C. handle Workers' Compensation cases for people like you all the time. They work on a contingency fee basis, which means that they will not charge you for any attorney fee unless they obtain a recovery on your behalf. Their fee will be a percentage of that recovery, which amount is typically provided by the Missouri Statutes, plus costs or expenses. For more information about how to get your injury claim started right away, please call us at (314) 862-6060, St. Louis or (636) 239-0408, Washington.