subject: The Job of the State Agency [print this page] The Job of the State Agency The Job of the State Agency
A Great Falls law firm which specializes in workmen's compensation cases has criticized a report of the legislature's Audit Committee on the state Workmen's Compensation Division. On a yearly basis, the state agency spends millions of dollars to pay workers for job related illness and injury and this is why there is a document serving to contend the audit which focused too much on the unfavorable aspects of their operations. Such an audit report contained allegations of abuses by division officials, lawyers, and doctors in the handling of workmen's compensation cases.
The author of a pamphlet which was submitted to the legislature's Select Committee on Workmen's Compensation also works as a lawyer for this firm. In this case, the report should have focused more on helping working men and women according to him and another lawyer. The Workmen's Compensation audit is an intensive and expensive audit and as the news media covered various phases over a couple of months, there has been a search for any indications of whether or not the laboring people who will become disabled during the course of their employment will be its beneficiaries.
This is an audit that has been founded on a base of rumors and suspicion concerning at least most of the lawyers who practice before the division and this is what is rather unfortunate for the audit that is very broad in scope according to the lawyer. Easily resulting to one conviction for theft and fraud and three other criminal charges filed becoming a full blown attorney general's investigation is this audit investigation. The charges led to the convictions of a number of people, two were lawyers, one was a legal secretary, and one was an alleged runner for a lawyer.
For the final analysis, according to the lawyer it is always assumed that dishonesty and abuses are the rule and so good people should not be hampered with this suspicion. With regard to the rules and regulations designed almost entirely to prevent what apparently is assumed to have been the abuses of the past, this should not be the burden of the good people according to him. Pertaining to the contended lawyers seeking doctors with moderate attitudes to perform medical examinations on clients with workmen's compensation claims, there was a segment of the audit that was criticized when it comes to the document. It is the innuendo that doctors who prepare medical evaluations are anything but honest that lacks objectivity according to the lawyer. When it comes to the audit report, they did not include anything on obtaining medical reports from many orthopedists and members of the neurological fraternity. As mentioned by a well known orthopedic surgeon, no one is entitled to anything that he did not earn legitimately. On a yearly basis, many injured working people are dealt with by this doctor.
Also refuting an audit recommendation discouraging lump sum settlements in workmen's compensation cases was this same document. Many abuses are opened up through the practice of allowing an injury claim to be paid in one large sum as mentioned by two lawyers coming from the same firm but a single award has plenty of benefits as well. In the case of a seriously injured worker has to settle for weekly payments of $100 or less for a long period, the lawyers mentioned that he will not be able to pay debts or enter into another business to make up for his disability.
