Georgia Workers' Compensation Lawyer Blog

USA Today recently reported that, while workplace fatalities are down overall, Hispanic workplace fatalities are significantly up right now.  Certainly, if your spouse, parent, or other relative has been killed at work in Atlanta, please contact my Atlanta workers' compensation law office for a free consultation regarding your rights as an heir.  Benefits after a workplace fatality vary by several factors, including whether the decedent was married, whether he/she had children, what the children's ages were at the time of death, whether he/she was already receiving workers' compensation benefits at the time of death or not, etc.

As an Atlanta workers' compensation attorney, I monitor developments in employee benefits and wages, as increases can affect injured workers' temporary total disability (TTD) rates if they are completely disabled after a workplace injury in Atlanta, or their temporary partial disability rates (TPD), if they are partially disabled after getting hurt at work in Atlanta. 

Accordingly, the coming increase in federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour is on my firm's radar.  When minimum wage goes up, other lower-income workers tend to get an increase in wages as well.  The unemployment rate increases afterward.  This creates scenarios in which injured workers who were previously trying to "work through the pain" will now be more willing to seek medical treatment and/or need income benefits while they search for suitable employment.  An increase in minimum wage will often spur the Georgia Legislature to increase the maximum workers' compensation rate (currently at $500/week).  

Thus, while the increased minimum wage may hurt our national economy as small businesses struggle to make a profit with increasing labor costs, it may help injured workers in Georgia who are on (or are seeking) workers' compensation benefits.

A workers' compensation lawyer in metro Atlanta recently asked me to represent his client during oral arguments given to the appellate level of the State Board of Workers' Compensation. The issue was whether or not adequate notice was given after an injury at work in Atlanta.

Believe it or not, an appellate court in Georgia has held that, even when an injured worker told her employer that her back injury was not related to work, when she later determined through her doctor that did have a back injury related to work, she was able to win her case despite her boss's attempt to use an inadequate notice defense. 

Basically, adequate notice to an employer just has to give your employer the opportunity to investigate your injury to see if it's related to your job or not--you don't have to report that you've had an injury that arose out of, and in the course of, your employment.  Just letting your supervisor know you are injured can be adequate.  For more nuances in the law regarding a "notice defense" in Georgia, feel free to contact my Atlanta "workmen's comp" law firm.

Often in my Atlanta workers' compensation practice, I'm asked when an injured worker should report his injury to his employer. Simply put, you should report your workplace injury as soon as possible, but no later than 30 days.

Of course, if your injury is a disease or a repetitive motion injury that developed gradually, you are not expected to be able to identify the exact date on which the condition began and report it within 30 days of that date. However, you should strive to report trauma injuries and other "sudden" injuries within 30 days of the workplace accident. 

This begs the question, "What if my boss told me to 'shake it off' and keep working, so I didn't realize how bad it was until 3 months later?" I would still report the injury to your employer and consult an experienced Atlanta "workman's comp" lawyer, as a technical defense such as "improper notice" is unlikely to, by itself, keep you from getting workers' compensation benefits with most of the Atlanta Administrative Law Judges, in my experience.

In my Atlanta workers' compensation practice, I often encounter injured workers who have developed pain in their wrists and hands.

While most of us have heard of carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) as an ailment many administrative assistants can develop from years of typing, CTS can also be trauma induced and begin after a fall. Other risk factors for CTS include obesity, smoking, and (more obviously) repetitive motion job duties.

Please do not hesitate to contact my Atlanta workers' compensation law office if you have questions about wrist and hand pain, and you believe your painful symptoms could have originated at work.