Check Out Our Podcast: The Verdict
The outcome of your workers' compensation claim could hinge on what you do — and say — in the first few hours after your injury. In this episode of The Verdict, Clarke continues his conversation with workers’ compensation attorney Brian Groesser to explain why the earliest moments in a claim matter most.
Brian outlines the three documents that often determine the strength of a case: the incident report, the initial medical record, and Form 18. He explains how specificity, accuracy, and even timing can make or break a claim. You'll also learn why insurance adjusters are not your allies. Even if you have a good relationship with your employer, the adjusters can use your own words against you. Calling a lawyer early isn't just smart, it’s often critical, and we’re explaining why today.
Here’s what we discuss in this episode:
📝 The three most important documents in your case
⚠️ Why vague or inconsistent reports can lead to denials
📞 Why you should contact a lawyer before talking to anyone else
💼 How insurance companies work against you from day one
🎯 Why your words carry more weight than you realize
0:00 – First actions you should take after injury
2:48 – How quickly should you get an attorney involved
4:08 – Can you trust your employer?
6:50 – Are you making mistakes?
Workers comp, attorney, catastrophic injury, legal claims, communication, credibility, claims, insurance adjuster
Learn more about how Speaks Law Firm can help you: https://www.speakslaw.com/
Schedule your FREE case review: https://www.speakslaw.com/our-team/r-clarke-speaks/#contactFormTarget
Find us on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3R40YMP
00:00
I'm Clark speaks the catastrophic injury lawyer, welcome to the verdict. Welcome back to the verdict. I'm continuing my conversation with Brian grocer. Brian is the lead workers compensation attorney at speaks law firm, Brian. We were talking about preparation and and in the value that that plays in this process, what are the very first thing someone should do after they've been hurt at work? It's very important question, because a lot of times cases hinge on what I'm just going to talk about right here, and it's the employee side, the client side on our end, but the employee side of preparing for their own case as soon as you get hurt, the three most important documents that the Industrial Commission looks at. In my mind, over the years of litigating cases, there are the intake or the the incident report, which is something that the employer tends to give the employee after they get injured. It is the form 18, you know what they filed, when they filed it, and that's something that's an Industrial Commission form, and then it's the initial medical record. I'm going to focus on the first record and the third record, because I think those are the most important ones to me. The incident report is typically something that is given to the employee right after they're injured. It's a temporal thing. It happened. You slipped and fell, you reported to the manager, and the manager has you fill out an incident report. Be specific as to what happened, right? Be specific. Don't just say I was doing my job and I hurt my and I hurt my shoulder, like, how did you hurt your shoulder? What would happen? Who was witnesses? Who was around you at the time that this happened? All of that stuff is going to be vital in case you ever go to a hearing, because we need to know who those witnesses are. We need to track down those witnesses. We need to talk to talk to those witnesses. If there's videotape, we need to get the videotape and with the specificity it matters, because I talked in the previous episode that just because you got hurt at work doesn't mean that it's an accident, right? You need to know if this is an accident or not. Just doing your normal job and injuring your arm might not be an accident, but if something unusual will happen, right? The box you were carrying slipped and it tore your rotator cuff while you were trying to catch it. That's an accident, right? You got to be specific as to what happened. The second one, which was the third document that I talked about, is that initial medical record, whether it's at urgent care, whether it's at the ER, I encourage folks to do the same thing there, and to be specific as to what happened now, just say I got hurt at work. How did you get hurt? And what happened and what is bothering you, what specific things are bothering you? Because what you say there carries much more weight than what you say maybe two months later when you go and see the orthopedic, because if what you see when you see the orthopedic two months later doesn't jive with what you were telling the urgent care folks or with the ER personnel on the day of the injury, it's going to look to be looked at with more skepticism. Well, it sounds like to me that if what you say in these two reports matters as much as you say it does, it would be helpful for a person to consult with an attorney immediately upon, even before they may have to fill out this these reports, if that's at all possible, yeah, if at all possible, absolutely. Sometimes it's hard to do that on the you know, you just literally slipped and fell, and you're meeting with the manager and they're having you fill out an incident report. It's hard to be like, Oh, wait, I'm going to call an attorney first. But I think getting an attorney involved as soon as possible does not hurt you in any ways, because this is a situation that is unfamiliar to you, but it's not unfamiliar to the people that you're about to go against, and that is the carrying in it. And I say that it's not necessarily adversarial to start it's a system that's supposed to be set up for you. I always refer to it similar as what you see in the commercials with Aflac, where you get paid while you're out of work and pay for your medical bills. That's kind of how workers comp works. But you also have to realize the other side is looking to for ways to deny your claim from the very outset, looking for ways to limit their exposure from the very outset. And if you have no experience in workers comp, you're going up against
03:58
an opponent, for lack of a better word, that has a lot of experience. All they do, that's all they do. It's their job, their entire job. You just got injured at your job. This is their job. So that's the part that I think people struggle with. In my experience, what happens in these situations is people are like, Hey, I've got a good relationship with my employer. I work hard. They appreciate what I do. They see that I work hard. They need me on their team. They sent me to the doctor. They're gonna do the right thing.
04:25
You're really not dealing with the employer at that point in time. Can you describe who you are dealing with and what that people need to keep in mind through that early stages of this process, like this a really good point. And so you're by yourself, right? You get but at the end, you get an attorney and everything. But you're by yourself. You are Joe Smith by yourself. The other side is your employer, Company X, but it's also their insurance carrier, Company Y, and their insurance carrier is typically the ones that are calling the shots. You may have a great relationship with Company X, your employer. You've been there for 20 years. Guess who doesn't.
05:00
Care about that company y, the insurance carrier, because Company Y views you as a liability. As soon as you get hurt, you become a liability, because now you are costing them the insurance carrier money, and as soon as you start costing them money, they got to figure out a way to curb that, to lessen that exposure as best as they can. The employer may still have it. You may still have a great relationship with them. The problem is they're deferring to
05:27
their insurance carrier, who ultimately is going to be represented by an attorney anyways, and they're going to be doing everything they can to limit their exposure at your expense. What are some of the things that people can do to protect themselves early on in a case, to prevent themselves this present for prevent losing money in a situation like this, to protect their interest in their family. Call a lawyer, and that's that's the easiest way to do it, to be honest with you, because that's our job, right? Our job is to protect you. Our job is to make sure that things are done correctly. And there are plenty of cases where I work with an insurance carrier directly, and everything's going fine. We're just kind of monitoring the medical treatment, making sure everything's proceeding as the way it's supposed to be, and maybe we eventually settle the case. And there's been no real issues. It's never been contentious or anything like that. But there are plenty of other cases that things start going haywire early on, and then I get brought in maybe six months or a year later, and I can't fix what happened necessarily, six months ago when you took that recorded statement with the carrier and you said the things that you told the carrier, now they have that as a transcript, and it hurts your case. You know those are things I can't fix necessarily. Well, let me ask you this, if you're riding beside somebody, is it much more? Is it? Is it more likely that things will go well than if you're not with someone 100%
06:49
okay? And then if a person is making a mistake early in their case, is there any way for them to know that if they don't see what's going on? No, because it's not their job that's they got injured at their job. Their job isn't managing a worker's compensation case, and that's what they're trying to do when they don't have the attorney. But during that early stages, does the does the adjuster know that the person is making mistakes that are costing them money in their claim? The adjuster knows it, and the adjuster also knows what questions to ask in order to trap you into saying something that you maybe don't want to say. It's not that you're lying or telling the truth or anything like that. It's just a matter of how you say it, just like I said, you're describing something that, to them isn't an accident, they're going to try and say, Well, you just were doing your normal job, right? Yeah, yeah, I was just doing my normal job. In your mind, you were, but there was an accident that happened. You just don't know that it was an accident. You're thinking of an accident as I slipped and fell in water and fell down and broke my hip. That isn't necessarily what happened, but it was still an accident. But the insurance carrier got you just to admit on your recorded statement that you were just doing your normal job. If you said that all of a sudden, it's not an accident, it's just an injury and it's not a compensable claim, and they'll deny your claim. Thank you, Brian. Join us next time when we'll talk about the role of an insurance adjuster after a workplace accident. Thanks for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. We'll see you next time you.
00:00
I'm Clark speaks the catastrophic injury lawyer, welcome to the verdict. Welcome back to the verdict. I'm continuing my conversation with Brian grocer. Brian is the lead workers compensation attorney at speaks law firm, Brian. We were talking about preparation and and in the value that that plays in this process, what are the very first thing someone should do after they've been hurt at work? It's very important question, because a lot of times cases hinge on what I'm just going to talk about right here, and it's the employee side, the client side on our end, but the employee side of preparing for their own case as soon as you get hurt, the three most important documents that the Industrial Commission looks at. In my mind, over the years of litigating cases, there are the intake or the the incident report, which is something that the employer tends to give the employee after they get injured. It is the form 18, you know what they filed, when they filed it, and that's something that's an Industrial Commission form, and then it's the initial medical record. I'm going to focus on the first record and the third record, because I think those are the most important ones to me. The incident report is typically something that is given to the employee right after they're injured. It's a temporal thing. It happened. You slipped and fell, you reported to the manager, and the manager has you fill out an incident report. Be specific as to what happened, right? Be specific. Don't just say I was doing my job and I hurt my and I hurt my shoulder, like, how did you hurt your shoulder? What would happen? Who was witnesses? Who was around you at the time that this happened? All of that stuff is going to be vital in case you ever go to a hearing, because we need to know who those witnesses are. We need to track down those witnesses. We need to talk to talk to those witnesses. If there's videotape, we need to get the videotape and with the specificity it matters, because I talked in the previous episode that just because you got hurt at work doesn't mean that it's an accident, right? You need to know if this is an accident or not. Just doing your normal job and injuring your arm might not be an accident, but if something unusual will happen, right? The box you were carrying slipped and it tore your rotator cuff while you were trying to catch it. That's an accident, right? You got to be specific as to what happened. The second one, which was the third document that I talked about, is that initial medical record, whether it's at urgent care, whether it's at the ER, I encourage folks to do the same thing there, and to be specific as to what happened now, just say I got hurt at work. How did you get hurt? And what happened and what is bothering you, what specific things are bothering you? Because what you say there carries much more weight than what you say maybe two months later when you go and see the orthopedic, because if what you see when you see the orthopedic two months later doesn't jive with what you were telling the urgent care folks or with the ER personnel on the day of the injury, it's going to look to be looked at with more skepticism. Well, it sounds like to me that if what you say in these two reports matters as much as you say it does, it would be helpful for a person to consult with an attorney immediately upon, even before they may have to fill out this these reports, if that's at all possible, yeah, if at all possible, absolutely. Sometimes it's hard to do that on the you know, you just literally slipped and fell, and you're meeting with the manager and they're having you fill out an incident report. It's hard to be like, Oh, wait, I'm going to call an attorney first. But I think getting an attorney involved as soon as possible does not hurt you in any ways, because this is a situation that is unfamiliar to you, but it's not unfamiliar to the people that you're about to go against, and that is the carrying in it. And I say that it's not necessarily adversarial to start it's a system that's supposed to be set up for you. I always refer to it similar as what you see in the commercials with Aflac, where you get paid while you're out of work and pay for your medical bills. That's kind of how workers comp works. But you also have to realize the other side is looking to for ways to deny your claim from the very outset, looking for ways to limit their exposure from the very outset. And if you have no experience in workers comp, you're going up against
03:58
an opponent, for lack of a better word, that has a lot of experience. All they do, that's all they do. It's their job, their entire job. You just got injured at your job. This is their job. So that's the part that I think people struggle with. In my experience, what happens in these situations is people are like, Hey, I've got a good relationship with my employer. I work hard. They appreciate what I do. They see that I work hard. They need me on their team. They sent me to the doctor. They're gonna do the right thing.
04:25
You're really not dealing with the employer at that point in time. Can you describe who you are dealing with and what that people need to keep in mind through that early stages of this process, like this a really good point. And so you're by yourself, right? You get but at the end, you get an attorney and everything. But you're by yourself. You are Joe Smith by yourself. The other side is your employer, Company X, but it's also their insurance carrier, Company Y, and their insurance carrier is typically the ones that are calling the shots. You may have a great relationship with Company X, your employer. You've been there for 20 years. Guess who doesn't.
05:00
Care about that company y, the insurance carrier, because Company Y views you as a liability. As soon as you get hurt, you become a liability, because now you are costing them the insurance carrier money, and as soon as you start costing them money, they got to figure out a way to curb that, to lessen that exposure as best as they can. The employer may still have it. You may still have a great relationship with them. The problem is they're deferring to
05:27
their insurance carrier, who ultimately is going to be represented by an attorney anyways, and they're going to be doing everything they can to limit their exposure at your expense. What are some of the things that people can do to protect themselves early on in a case, to prevent themselves this present for prevent losing money in a situation like this, to protect their interest in their family. Call a lawyer, and that's that's the easiest way to do it, to be honest with you, because that's our job, right? Our job is to protect you. Our job is to make sure that things are done correctly. And there are plenty of cases where I work with an insurance carrier directly, and everything's going fine. We're just kind of monitoring the medical treatment, making sure everything's proceeding as the way it's supposed to be, and maybe we eventually settle the case. And there's been no real issues. It's never been contentious or anything like that. But there are plenty of other cases that things start going haywire early on, and then I get brought in maybe six months or a year later, and I can't fix what happened necessarily, six months ago when you took that recorded statement with the carrier and you said the things that you told the carrier, now they have that as a transcript, and it hurts your case. You know those are things I can't fix necessarily. Well, let me ask you this, if you're riding beside somebody, is it much more? Is it? Is it more likely that things will go well than if you're not with someone 100%
06:49
okay? And then if a person is making a mistake early in their case, is there any way for them to know that if they don't see what's going on? No, because it's not their job that's they got injured at their job. Their job isn't managing a worker's compensation case, and that's what they're trying to do when they don't have the attorney. But during that early stages, does the does the adjuster know that the person is making mistakes that are costing them money in their claim? The adjuster knows it, and the adjuster also knows what questions to ask in order to trap you into saying something that you maybe don't want to say. It's not that you're lying or telling the truth or anything like that. It's just a matter of how you say it, just like I said, you're describing something that, to them isn't an accident, they're going to try and say, Well, you just were doing your normal job, right? Yeah, yeah, I was just doing my normal job. In your mind, you were, but there was an accident that happened. You just don't know that it was an accident. You're thinking of an accident as I slipped and fell in water and fell down and broke my hip. That isn't necessarily what happened, but it was still an accident. But the insurance carrier got you just to admit on your recorded statement that you were just doing your normal job. If you said that all of a sudden, it's not an accident, it's just an injury and it's not a compensable claim, and they'll deny your claim. Thank you, Brian. Join us next time when we'll talk about the role of an insurance adjuster after a workplace accident. Thanks for joining us. Don't forget to subscribe and follow us to stay up to date with our weekly episodes. We'll see you next time you.
