Workers' Compensation Discussion Forums

We live in Louisiana, last August my husband was injured on the job, he had a scope done and then ended up having total knee on his right knee this past March. He is still off work and after seeing a second doctor the conclusion is he will not be able to go back to driving a truck. The doctors say that his quad muscle is the problem and not his new knee. Of course we already know he will have to have the left knee done as well. Now we are being told that WC is wanting to offer us a settlement, we have no idea what to do now and since we are at the end of our rope could somebody advise us what we need to do.

Is the left knee repacement due to the on the job injury? I am from Louisiana and going through a settlement process now. North Louisiana or South?

Do you have a Attorney?

Will you need future medical for his on the job injury?

Has he had a FCE? If yes what was the findings?

Has the Doctor declared him MMI?

Has he seen a Vocational Rehab guru?

Are we talking about someone who is young or near retirement age?

I apologize for all the questions. WC IC would love to settle quickly with you without a Attorney I promise.

Be patient; They cannot force you into a settlement and vice versa.

It was right knee and yes related to job injury, the left knee will have to be done soon

We live in North Louisiana

He is 44

No attorney yet

Yes he had the FCE, but I dont know what the finding were.

Oh yeah the vocational guru came to see him.

No future medical treatment as far as two doctors are concerned, they say he is recovered as far as he can there is nothing they can do for the muscle.

is wc still paying him while he is out of work? if you want to entertain settlement thoughts an attorney probably could get you more than you can get on your own. but if he needs more medical than i wouldn't settle yet.

yeah he is still receiving benefits, he was receiving weekly now it is once a month. W/C is the one entertaining the settlement idea as far as future medical his doctor says he is as recovered as he will get. We don't have an attorney yet but have thought about it but have no idea who to use.

This may be able to help or point you in the right direction.

Most attorney's offer a free consulatation.

http://www.lwcc.com/section.cfm?sid=3 I hope this helps.

Why once a month? Did they cut his benefits? Something is not making sense here.

When he reaches MMI, It is time to probably move forward with a settlement. He is only 44.

What is his education background?

Eventually, he will be cutoff.
WC is not a Personal Injury settlement. They are not trying to get your Husband back to his pre-injury status. All they want is for a Doctor to declare him MMI and suitable for some type of work. I am jhust being honest.

What are you expecting from this?

I would get a copy of the FCE report; Call your case manager and get the original documented results. If you need to, call the place where the FCE was done and get a copy. Very important IMO.

I also am a North Louisiana person.I live 40 miles from Monroe. MY Attorney is from this city.

He was changed to once a month this past month since they want to rehabilitate him for another job. He doesnt have a GED and all he has ever done was drive a truck or tractor. Supposedly he can do a desk job, but will not be able to return to doing truck driving or anything like that. I think his FCE says that he could probably work at a job in a sitting positon for no more than 4 hours a day, with no kind of heavy lifting, crawling. bending, stooping etc. We are not expecting some huge sum of money or anything like that, we just would like our lives to return to some kind of normalcy. We have no clue about any of this or how it works. We don't even know the name of a good attorney if one is needed. Oh what is MMI?

MMI = Maximum Medical Improvement.

With the restictions that are in place. You may want to also think about SSDI, However, if he gets some type of training or schooling. Then he would not need SSDI.

Oh ok ty. We applied for diability but he was turned down for that and we are debating on whether to appeal or not.