Tom McCutcheon – Attorney at Law
Q: How do I get a doctor in my on the job injury case when my employer denies that I even had an injury at work but I did.
Randy
Killen, AL
A: For most of the 30 years that I’ve handled workers compensation cases representing injured workers, we could file a motion with the court to compel medical care.
However, the Court of Civil Appeals in 2007 in a case called Ex parte Publix Supermarkets 963 So.2d 654 completely changed the law in this area. By the way, the 963 is the book in the series Southern 2d which covers Alabama and a few nearby states and the 654 is the page the case is found. In this case, the trial court granted the injured worker’s motion to compel medical treatment. I had filed these motions for years and absent some wildly unusual circumstance, they were always granted.
After 2007, the Court of Civil Appeals ruled that there was no such “motion to compel medical treatment” and required the injured worker to take a doctor’s deposition to obtain medical evidence that the doctor believed the injury occurred on the job and any other evidence that had some bearing on the issue such as a first report or injury or a witness who saw the accident and try one half of the case to establish liability and then the court could and would order medical treatment.
As you can see, when there is a controversy regarding an employer’s obligation to pay for medical treatment, you have to follow the court’s holding in Ex Parte Publix Supermarkets and take a doctor’s deposition, get your witnesses and ask for a “bifurcated hearing”. This is not something that someone without a lawyer will be able to do.
Remember that legitimate workers compensation attorneys never ask for any money up front and pay all of the costs of obtaining the doctor’s testimony and other items necessary for trying half the case. After that is done successfully and the injured person obtains medical treatment, you cannot resolve the case until the injured worker reaches what is known as “MMI”. MMI is a term that means maximum medical improvement and is the point at which temporary total disability payments stop and no payment is made until the case is resolved. At the end of the case, the lawyer can recoup his expenses plus charge a 15% attorney’s fee.
Buckle up and drive safely.
McCutcheon & Hamner, P.C.
2210 Helton Drive
Florence, Alabama 35630
Telephone: 256-764-0112
Facsimile: 256-349-2529
