Maryland Workers Compensation Commission Hearings
After you file the claim part of the process of a Maryland Workers Compensation Commission claim is what it’s like to go to a Maryland Workers Compensation Commission trial at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission. On the day of the hearing at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission you appear and there will be many other hearings for other clients on that particular day.
The hearings at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission tend to take anywhere from ten minutes to two hours depending on how complicated the case is. When your case is called, you will go up to the witness stand.
Your attorney will appear with you at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission. At the trial table will be the lawyer who represents your employer and your insurance company and there may be an attorney from another fund called the Subsequent Injury Fund. Before the hearing at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission starts the person who hears the case is called the Worker’s Compensation Commissioner.
The Worker’s Compensation Commissioner makes the decision in your case. You will typically not get a decision from the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission on that particular day as the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission is going to listen to your testimony, listen to the testimony of the witnesses, listen to what the lawyers have to say in closing, and then when the cases are over for the day, read over the medicals, compare that with the testimony and then render a decision. Sometimes you get the decision from the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission the next day. Sometimes it can take as long as a month.
One process of a workers compensation claim includes at the beginning of the hearing at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission the witness will be placed under oath.
Usually the person who’s filing the claim testifies first. And then the Worker’s Comp Commissioner will ask the following questions – What was the date of the accident? Is there a claim for dates missed, which is called temporary total? What are the issues that are to be heard in the case? What is the average weekly wage of the claimant? Meaning in the last 14 weeks before the accident, how much money did the claimant make? Those are the typical questions asked by the Worker’s Compensation Commissioner as part of the process of a workers compensation claim .
Next in the process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission , the hearing will start. Typical questions asked in the beginning of a hearing are –
What is your name?
What is your address?
describe what happened.
How did you get injured in particular case?
What is the date of the injury?
On that date what were you doing?
What were you supposed to be doing?
What time did you get at work?
Who were you with when the accident happened?
Describe what happened.
Describe how you hurt yourself.
What parts of your body did you hurt?
Where there any witnesses? If so what are their names?
Who did you complain about your injuries to?
When did you complain about your injuries? What injuries did you complain about? Describe the mechanism of the injury, meaning how you exactly injure each part of your body.
The process of a workers compensation claim continues:
What did the employer do as a result of you telling them you were injured?
What medical treatment did you have?
Did you go to the emergency room right away? Did you go by ambulance?
What treatment did you have at the emergency room?
What recommendations did they make at the emergency room after that?
Did they give you time off from work?
The process of a workers compensation claim continues:
Did you follow up with the doctor? If so, what did the doctor do?
What treatment did he provide?
Did you have physical therapy? Did you have any x-rays?
Did you have any recommendations for surgery?
Did you go back to work? If you didn’t go back to work, what type of work do you do? Why were you unable to do that type of work?
The process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission continues:
If there’s a recommendation for surgery, specifically is the problem you’re having?
Why do you want to have the surgery?
Are you willing to have surgery?
Have you gotten a second opinion?
Are you aware that the insurance company’s doctors says that you don’t need the surgery, that it’s not related, or that it won’t help you?
Did you discuss that with your doctor?
Do you still want to have the surgery?
The process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission continues:
Have you injured the body before?
Have you ever filed a worker’s compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission before?
If you had, what body parts did you injure?
Have you ever been involved in an auto accident before? What body parts have you injured? Where did you treat it?
Were there any witnesses for this case? Who were the witnesses?
Did you ever return back to work? If not why are you not working now?
The process of a workers compensation claim continues:
If the hearing is about permanent injury, then we may ask you:
What present complaints are you having?’
Did you have any of these complaints before the accident? If so what complaints did you have before the accident?
What complaints do you have now?
Are you able to go back to the type of work you are doing before? If not, why not? If yes, do you have any limitations?
Are you able to do your full activities at home?
Are there any activities at home that you’re not able to do that you used to be able to do?
The process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission continues:
Let’s say you had shoulder surgery, now you have permanent issues from that. Are you able to get full range of motion with your shoulder? Can you lift it straight up? Can you lift it straight back? If you can’t, does it hurt?
Describe what it feels like when it hurts.
What motions make it hurt?
What are the specific life activities that you can’t do?
Let’s say you have a bad back. Are you able bend? Are you able to stoop? Are you able to stand for long periods of time? If so, how long? Are you able to walk? If you can walk how long can you walk before you have to sit down? If you can’t sit for long periods of time how long can you sit? If it affects you when you’re sleeping, tell me when it does and what happens.
What medications are you presently taking?
Did you have a second job at the time of the accident?
The process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission continues:
In a permanency claim I will go thru the complaints separately if you injured more than one body part. I will go through each body part. You have to take your time. This is your chance to tell the Commissioner all of the problems you have and you don’t want to leave anything out.
I’ll ask you what type of work you’ve done past. Let’s say you are unable to do the type work you are doing before and were trying to figure out if you entitled the vocational rehabilitation, you need some help looking for new work. We ask you what your work history is. We’ll first ask you what type of work you did at the time of the accident. Why you’re not able to do that type work anymore? What is it about the injuries you have that prevents you from doing that?
Is your employer willing to provide you light duty or make accommodations?
If not what other efforts have you made to look for work?
What other type of work have you done in the past?
Can go back to that type of work? If not, why not?
The process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission continues:
What is it about your injuries that limit you from doing work you have done in the past? What is your educational background? How far did you go in school?
Are you able to read and write?
Are you able to work with computers, etc.?
What other vocational training have you had?
Are there jobs that you’ve ever done in the past that you could go back to doing.
Do you need help by way of a vocational counselor to figure out what type of work you can do and then help looking for work?
The process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission continues:
Then after the plaintiff’s attorney completes asking questions, the other lawyer gets to ask you questions on cross examination. The purpose of their cross examination is to try and make it look like you’re either exaggerating your injuries or exaggerating your inability to go back to the type of work you are doing before.
They will also ask about prior injuries you’ve had.
And while I asked you about prior injuries I’m just asking for some basic facts. They’re really going to get very detailed information from you regarding prior injuries.
They’ll have your medical records from the prior injuries, but they’re really go through that with a fine tooth comb to compare complaints you were having before and why the problems you’re having now are similar to those and that the problems you’re having today really aren’t related to the new accident but perhaps related to the old accident.
They may have records about injuries that you didn’t report to your lawyer or doctor They can locate prior medical treatment by subpoena, or submit a request to a central agency where insurance companies as a group submit claim histories. Prior claims history would also be available at the Workers compensation Commission or through judicial case search on the internet.
The process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission continues:
They may ask about prior criminal record although more often than not the Worker’s Comp. commission will not allow this.
They may ask in greater detail the actual treatment you have had that is related to the accident.
If the issue in your case is whether you need surgery, they may ask you whether you discussed with the doctor, the negatives and positives, whether you’re aware the IME said that you don’t need the surgery or that you needed the surgery before the accident and this is nothing new.
The process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission continues:
They may ask you whether you kept your appointments.
They may ask about what you told different doctors at different times. So let’s say you went to a Dr. A and you told them you injured this part of your body then went to Dr. B and told them that you injured another part of your body. If your medical records are not consistent the will question you on this .
The Insurance company attorney may call other witnesses to contradict your story. They can look on your Facebook page or any other social media page and see that you’ve been going to all these parties and celebrating when you are saying you are incapacitated.
The process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission continues:
Finally, they may have been you on video. I can tell when the insurance company has hired a private investigator, to follow you with a video camera because they start asking at the hearing ‘Can you do this? Can do that?’ As soon as I hear that I know they’re about to play a video after you’re done testifying showing you doing the activities that you’ve just testified that you were unable to do.
The insurance company may call witnesses including the employer to testify that whatever you said about the type of work you are doing is not correct or the work is lighter than you testified to and that based on the limitations the doctors have given you are able to do that type of work or that you were a lousy worker, that you been complaining about all these things from day one. Those are typical questions that are first set up by questioning you on this topic and then later putting on witnesses to say something else.
The process of a workers compensation claim at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission continues:
Next, the testimony will close, your case will be over, and the next case will start. Eventually you get a decision from the Worker’s Compensation Commission.
That is what typically happens at a workers compensation commission hearing at the Maryland Workers Compensation Commission . My name is Marc Atas. I am from the law office of Mark Atas and Associates. I am located at 6 East Mulberry St., Baltimore, Maryland 21202. My phone numbers are 410 752 4878. My 800 number is (800)749 4878. My email address is matas@ataslaw.com.
