Collect all the medical records from every provider that has seen you since the date of injury. Also collect all the correspondence from the insurance company and its attorney, all claims, answers, petitions, and prehearing conference summaries and notices that were filed with or by the Alaska Workers Compensation Board.
When you start looking for an attorney to handle your workers compensation claim, you will quickly find out that attorneys will ask you to pull together a number of records to review. At the very least, he or she will want to see all of your medical records since your date of injury, the report of the insurance doctor (EIME), if one exists, and the controversion notice, if one exists. Depending on the circumstances, the attorney may want to request more documents in order to review your case.
There are two basic reasons why attorneys ask for the file before deciding whether to accept the case: first, in order to evaluate the case properly, and second, it is a test.
Ab attorney cannot determine whether he or she can help the claimant without reviewing the entire file. Workers Compensation law is complicated and each case is unique.
The second reason for asking claimants to gather the records: it is a test. If a claimant does not have enough motivation to collect the files, then he or she probably doesn’t have enough motivation to see the case through. If he or she cannot or does not follow directions, then he or she will be a difficult client to work with.
So if you are serious about your workers compensation claim, collect the records which are asked of you. All of them.
The Law Office of Keenan Powell provides free consultations regardless of whether or not you have been controverted. To contact Keenan Powell, use the contact form on this page or call 258-7663.
For more information about Workers Compensation, see: http://www.keenanpowell.com/faq-wc.html.