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The Negotiation and Mediation in a Tennessee Workers Compensation Claim

The process for suing to collect Workers' Compensation benefits in Tennessee is different from a typical car wreck or other personal injury situation. If you had been in a car wreck while driving to the store for groceries, you would have a year to file your lawsuit in court. The Workers' Compensation system works differently. You still might end up in court eventually, but before you do, you first have to participate in something called the "Benefit Review Process" at the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (the "TNDOL").

The "Negotiation Phase."

Once a claim arises, the injured party's attorney and the workers compensation insurance company (and their attorneys) both must assess how they think a judge would evaluate the value of the particular case. Each side assigns a value to the case and tries to get the other side to see that their value is more correct. This is what is commonly referred to as the "negotiation phase" of a case.

In the "negotiation phase" the workers compensation insurance company, through their experienced adjusters and insurance lawyers, has the upper hand on the injured party if the injured party is not represented by an experienced workers compensation attorney. For example, it is a common practice of insurance companies to "hold out" in order to "starve" the injured party into accepting less than the case is worth. In fact, this is the way insurance adjusters are trained and taught. Again, an insurance adjuster is there to make money for his or her boss, the insurance company, not for you! It is their job to pay you, the injured party less than the "fair value" of the claim. On the other hand, it is the job of the experienced workers compensation attorney to obtain the "fair value" of the claim for his or her client.

An experienced workers compensation attorney will also rely on other factors and his or her experience obtained in other cases, as well as the opinions of expert witnesses. Some of the factors an experienced workers compensation attorney will consider include: the venue of the case (where the case will be tried), the client's likeability as a witness, his or her credibility as a witness, the particular facts of the case, the age of the client, the defense attorneys involved, and most importantly, the vocational disability amount of comparable settlements for similar cases in the same or similar counties.

An experienced workers compensation attorney will have settled or tried to verdict several cases similar to yours and will have those past experiences to use in properly valuing your case.

The main point that you should take from this sub-section is that no two workers compensation claims are exactly alike. While they may be similar on the surface of the facts, there are several factors that go into properly valuing a case. (These factors are covered thoroughly in Chapter Six.) These evaluations require a lot of knowledge and experience. Without the experience of doing this several times before, injured parties lacking this experience will find themselves at a serious disadvantage when negotiating with an experienced insurance adjuster and their insurance defense lawyers. An experienced workers compensation attorney is in the business of placing the proper value on each particular case and negotiating with the insurance companies and their legal teams. In most instances, you will be well served and financially rewarded by hiring an experienced workers compensation attorney.

Please call or click to discuss your work related injury with a real attorney at The Williams Law Group.  We can help!

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