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Author: Keenan Powell

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In Workers Compensation cases, the first question most attorneys ask when a prospective client calls is: "Have you been controverted?"

A controversion can be formal or informal.  If the insurance company is obeying the law, it will send you a Controversion Notice explaining why it is no longer paying your benefits.  The back side of the form sets out what your rights and obligations are if you wish to pursue a Claim before the Board.  That information is very important, so read it.  If you don’t understand it, you can go to the Board’s office and ask to speak to a legal tech.  Or you can call an attorney.

 Controversion Notice

An informal controversion is when the insurance company resists payment of benefits.  For instance, the insurance company may refuse to preauthorize your surgery.  Because it refuses to preauthorize your surgery, the doctor won’t perform the operation.  Suddenly you’re stuck not being able to get the surgery that you need and you can’t go back to work because your injury isn’t fixed.  Even if the insurance company is paying you temporary total disability or temporary partial disability, it’s not enough to live on.  And you fall farther and farther behind.

 Even if the insurance company has not formally controverted you, you are still entitled to file a Claim to recover your benefits and you can still find an attorney to help you, because once the insurance company has controverted you, or resisted payment of your benefits, and you are successful in obtaining benefits through the services of your attorney, the insurance company will have to pay your attorneys fees.

 See http://www.keenanpowell.com/faq-wc.html for more information.

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The insurance companies pay their own attorneys and doctors substantially more than they are required to pay employees attorneys.  In 2011, they spent a total of $11 million ($9.4 million and another $1.6 in litigation costs) to defeat employee’s claims.  But they only paid employee attorneys a total of $4.4 million, less than half of what the spent on their own doctors and lawyers.    Source: Alaska Workers Compensation Board Annual Report, 2011:  http://labor.state.ak.us/wc/forms/2011AR.pdf.

Workers Compensation in Alaska is a multi-million dollar business.  A total of $260.7 million was paid in benefits in 2011 including $160.4 million on medical benefits and $55.1 million in indemnity (TTD, TPD, PPI and PTD) benefits.  These benefits include those paid to workers injured in prior years as well as 2011.

In 2011, over 21,000 workers were injured.  Most of these injuries were to fingers and backs.

Employers filed 4,655 controversions in 3,550 cases in 2011, an increase of 18.1%.  But only 1,224 claims were filed which means that there are well over 2,000 workers in 2011 alone who are not pursuing their rights under the Workers Compensation Act.

The Employers do not always file controversions which would alert the Employee to his rights when they treat Employees unfairly.  The Employers will not tell you if you have the right to challenge the compensation rate which they have calculated or that you are entitled to travel benefits for every trip to a doctor or therapist.  The Employers will not tell you that you have the right ask the Board to order the insurance company to pay for your surgery.  The Employers will not tell you when you have the right to seek a Second Independent Medical Evaluation from the Board when the insurance doctor disagrees with you treating physician.

Bottom Line:  There are many injured workers who are being controverted or treated unfairly that do not seek legal representation and the insurance companies spend are willing to pay hefty sums to keep from paying Employees.  For more information regarding Workers Compensation benefits, visit: http://www.keenanpowell.com/faq-wc.html. 

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There were 7,136 automobile collisions in Anchorage in 2011.   http://www.muni.org/Departments/works/traffic/engineering.  Not surprisingly, the majority of those collisions occurred from Monday through Friday and during the winter months.   Of those 7,136 collisions, .25% resulted in fatalities and 29.92% were reported as injury accidents.  However, experience has shown us that many people do not realize that they are injured in a motor vehicle accidents until a few hours later and many of these latent injuries are often times serious.

In 2011, there were 192,733 passenger vehicles registered in Anchorage.  http://doa.alaska.gov/dmv/research/curreg11.htm.    Assuming that there was an average of two cars in each of the 7,136 collisions, that means that 14,272 vehicles were involved in accidents in 2011.  In other words, seven per cent (7%) of cars registered in Anchorage were in accidents.  With odds like that, it is only a matter of time until everyone in Anchorage is involved in an accident and those odds increase if you drive to work Monday through Friday during the winter.

Thirty-one per cent (31%) of those collisions were rear end accidents.   It happens all of the time.  One driver stops at a stop sign or a stop light and the driver behind him is driving too fast or not paying attention and slams into him.  The innocent driver’s injuries can run the gamut from sprains and strains to herniated discs, rotator cuff injuries, wrist injuries and knee injuries.

Injuries from accidents can cause not only physical discomfort but the need for medical treatment, possibly surgery and time lost from work, all of which is unfair when all the injured driver was doing was driving to work in the winter, like most of us, and stopped at an intersection.  The problem is that thirteen per cent (13%) of Alaskan drivers are uninsured despite the fact that driving without insurance carries stiff penalties.  Not surprisingly, drivers who don’t obey the law and buy insurance also frequently don’t obey traffic laws. If that were not bad enough, there is a significant amount of hit and run accidents in Alaska as the result of drivers attempting to escape responsibility for their bad driving.  Many of them are unlicensed and uninsured as well.

The bottom line is that it’s important for your own protection to purchase uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage.  The minimum coverage available is $50,000/$100,000 but that is rarely enough to cover lost wages and medical costs in the event of any kind of surgery, much less in the event of a serious disabling injury.

Fore more information regarding insurance, visit my website:  http://www.keenanpowell.com/faq-mva.html.

 

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"Rondy is a 77-year tradition in Anchorage and you are invited to join us for our 10-day celebration of life in Alaska!"  http://www.furrondy.net/.  Fur Rondy is a fun time for the whole family with events taking place all over Anchorage from February 22 through March 3.  There will be a parade on Saturday, Feb 23 on 5th and 6th Avenues starting at 10:30.  The carnival will be on 3rd and E St starting  on Feb 22 at 1 PM. The Victorian Tea at the Senior Center is on Saturday, Feb 24 from 2-4 PM (Must purchase tickets in advance.  Call 770-2000). The fur auction will be Sat. Feb 23 from 11 AM to 4 PM at 3rd and E St.   Snowshoe softball at Kosinski Field on Saturday, Feb 23 from 8:45 AM to 6 PM. Outhouse races on Sat Feb 23 at 4 PM on 4th Ave between E St and F St.  dog races, Blanket toss on the weekends from 2PM to 4Pm at 3rd and E St. Snowboarding demo (I saw that a couple of years ago.  Awesome!) is on 2d Ave downhill from the Carnival on Sat. Feb 23 from 5 PM to 6 PM.  The melodrama is again at the Snow Goose Theatre on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.   There will also be a juried art competition at the Senior Center, a hockey tournament, basketball, Runnning of the Reindeer, Frostbite Footrace on 5th Avenue starting at Egan Center skywalk (you can register on-line by going to the Fury Rondy website), snow sculptures on Ship Creek Avenue, Native arts market at Dimond Mall.   My favorite event: the fireworks display will be on Saturday, February 23 starting at 6:45 PM at the small boat harbor, Ship Creek Avenue.  Shake off cabin fever, get out and rondy!

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The Anchorage Police Department no longer provides witness contact information to people involved in motor vehicle accidents.  So those people have no way of finding you if you give your name and contact information to the police.  If you want to do your civic duty and are willing to say what you saw, give your contact information to all of the drivers involved.  They will greatly appreciate it.

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“Preexisting conditions” is an excuse that the insurance companies like to use to deny benefits. Frequently they will hire their own doctor ("IME") to say that an Employee’s need for medical treatment or his disability is not because the Employee was injured at work, but instead due to preexisting conditions, usually degenerative disc disease.

The law is clear: work-related injuries which aggravate, accelerate or combine with pre-existing conditions to cause a disability or need for medical treatment is still a Workers Compensation injury.

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In 2011, 3,550 employee injuries were controverted but only one-third of those, 1,224, filed claims with the Alaska Workers Compensation Board and employers paid their attorneys $9.4 million in 2011 to defeat employee's claims.   Source: Alaska Workers Compensation 2011 Annual Report.

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All Employers are required by law to carry Workers Compensation insurance, yet many do not.  When that happens, the Employees think they have no right to benefits but that is not true.

All Alaska employees are insured in case they are injured at work.  The State of Alaska has a Guarantee Fund which pays the same benefits to injured workers which they would get if their Employer carried insurance.  In order to collect these benefits, the Employee must file a Claim with the Alaska Workers Compensation Board.

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In Workers Compensation cases, the amount of money which the Employee receives while off work (Temporary Total Disability, Temporary Partial Disability) is usually determined by looking at earnings during the previous two years, which is often unfair if the Employee had a much lower income in that time period.  In those cases, the Employee can file a Claim with the Board asking for an adjustment of the compensation rate.

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The majority of car accidents that I see occur when my client is minding his or her own business, stopped at a red light or stop sign, and then slammed into by someone who wasn't paying attention.  Because the negligent driver has a duty to keep a proper lookout and to refrain from crashing into people, these cases are very strong whether the injuries are minor or serious.  If you are injured in a motor vehicle accident, you should report the accident to the police, your insurance company and the negligent driver's insurance company.  Be sure to seek appropriate medical treatment and talk to an experienced personal injury attorney to find out what your rights are.