What You Should Know About a Notification of Suspension

Transcript:
Hello, this is Mike Dryden from the law firm of Willig, Williams and Davidson. I’m the head of the workers’ compensation department. Today, I have a message about a document that a client of mine recently received, and they had no idea what it was. It dawned on me that many people who receive this piece of paper wouldn’t know what it is after an injury or how important it is.

The document was what’s called a notification of suspension or modification. My client was injured, had been out of work, and was released to return to work with restrictions. He was sent this notification of suspension, indicating that they would no longer pay his workers’ compensation benefits because he was back to work making the same money that he had been making prior to the work injury.

The truth of it was that he was back to work 40 hours a week, but he had worked overtime before the injury, so he was not back to work, earning what his pre-injury average weekly wage actually was. As a result, suspension is not appropriate. If his benefits had been modified correctly, they would have had to pay a partial disability benefit or a second check in the form of workers’ compensation for two-thirds of the overtime he was losing.

As you continue to work 40 hours following the injury, the notification of suspension on the second page has a box where the worker can challenge that. You only have 20 days to challenge it. If you do not challenge the notification of suspension within the 20 day time period, it becomes as if you’ve agreed to whatever action the insurance carrier put on the form.

So if you’re back to work and they say your benefits are suspended and you don’t challenge it in a timely manner, then they’re going to stop. They’re only going to pay you 40 hours of work, and you’re not going to get a workers’ compensation check. Now we can fight that after the fact, but you may go months without receiving benefits if you just know what that box means or have that form checked by a worker’s compensation attorney, preferably a worker’s compensation attorney at Willig Williams & Davidson, you’ll be able to avoid a mistake, and we’d be able to help you navigate that.

If you have more questions regarding workers’ compensation generally or the notification suspension, please do not hesitate to contact our department. Thank you.