$1.2M Settlement + Approx $1.5M in Past Benefits
Claimant suffered injury in 2012. At the time, she was working as a nurse at a psychiatric facility where she was attacked by a patient and suffered head injuries when her head was slammed against the concrete floor on two separate occasions.
Attorney Stephen Harper was able to get the carrier to accept the case as compensable, and the claimant was awarded ongoing temporary total benefits. The parties attempted to mediate the case in 2015. Mediation at the Worker’s Compensation Commission was unsuccessful as carrier’s max authority at the time was $100,000. Following the unsuccessful mediation, we filed a motion to amend the claimant’s hourly wage to the max compensation rate based on substantially similar second job the plaintiff had at the time of the accident. We were successful at the hearing on that matter and successful on the appeal.
The carrier had to backdate the claimant’s check to the max compensation rate to the date of the accident. The claimant continued to be out of work receiving temporary total benefits. There were occasional fights at hearings over denied medical care. The claimant prevailed on all of those. Eventually the claimant’s doctors indicated that she needed home health care 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to be provided by her husband. We filed a claim for that, which was denied by the carrier, and were successful at the hearing before the deputy, on appeal to the full Commission, and on the appeal to the Court of Appeals.
The end result was that the carrier was ordered to pay for the home health care that was being provided by the husband 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. After the carrier paid the claimant’s husband all of the past owed home health care wages, the parties agreed to mediate the matter and we were able to settle the claim for $1.2 million with any Medicare-covered medicals left open.
Reinhardt | Harper | Davis is always willing to fight for our clients and are willing to stay with them as long as they need us. This case represents an example where the insurance company was unfair and unreasonable in the beginning, refusing to agree to appropriate average weekly wage for the client, and refused to settle for a fair value in 2015. Reinhardt | Harper | Davis fought for our client on every issue that was denied by the carrier. We won every hearing before the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission and the Court of Appeals on different occasions and ultimately forced the carrier to pay the client $1.2 million. Prior to settlement, the carrier was forced to pay for approximately $1.5 million in benefits. In addition, the defendant was forced to leave her medical open so she still has a right to ongoing medical care for those items that would normally be covered by Medicare, such as doctor’s visits and prescription medications.