NOYES LEGAL NEWS

Judge Awards Workers' Compensation Benefits and Wages After Final Hearing

Last week, the Judge of Compensation Claims awarded workers' compensation benefits after Attorney Matthew Noyes presented the case at the Final Hearing. Despite the workers' compensation carrier's position that the recommended epidural steroid injections were not medically necessary or related to the workers' compensation accident, the Judge disagreed and accepted the testimony of the injured employee's doctor and ordered the carrier to authorize the epidural steroid injections.

In addition, the workers compensation carrier refused to amend the injured employee's average weekly wage to include income from her second job. Under Florida workers' compensation law, the average weekly wage shall include wages from any other job the injured employee was working at the time of the injury as long as those wages are reported to the IRS for income tax purposes. Initially, the wages from the second job were not included in the injured workers' income taxes because she did not receive the paperwork before filing her income taxes. However, she subsequently filed an amended income tax return to include these wages. Nevertheless, the workers' compensation carrier still failed to amend the average weekly wage. After legal argument from Attorney Matthew Noyes, the Judge of Compensation Claims ordered the workers' compensation carrier to amend the average weekly wage to include the wages from the second job.

Florida workers' compensation law can be a mine field if you don't have someone guiding you through the hoops and hurdles of the work comp laws. Attorney Matthew Noyes and his Clearwater personal injury law firm -- Perenich, Caulfield, Avril & Noyes -- have been helping clients after Florida worker compensation claims for many years. Click here for a free case consultation after your Florida workers' compensation claim.

 

A Picture Can Deceive You

A car accident can result in considerable visible property damage, but it could also result in little visible property damage. However, what you see may not be correct.

Attorney Lorrie Robinson and I just finished a jury trial in a rear-end car accident case where State Farm was claiming that our client could not have been hurt because there was little visible damage to her rear bumper. In fact, even the client believed there was little property damage and wondered how she could have injured her neck, back, shoulder and developed carpal tunnel syndrome requiring surgery if there was no property damage to her vehicle.

After removing the plastic bumper cover of her Saturn VUE, the answer was clear. Despite there being little visible property damage to the plastic bumper cover, we were able to see that the impact she sustained in the rear-end collision resulted in damage to the bumper absorber, the bumper reinforcement and the rear body panel--that is, the impact was severe enough to crush metal four layers deep!! No wonder she was in pain.

This case is a lesson on how important investigation is after a car accident. Had we not been able to show the jury how this rear-end car accident was severe enough to crush metal, it is unlikely that we would have secured a verdict eight time higher than State Farm's last settlement offer.

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Attorney Matthew Noyes has been helping those injured in car accidents, motorcycle accidents, slip and falls, and other types of accidents for nearly 20 years. His Clearwater personal injury law firm -- Perenich, Caulfield, Avril & Noyes -- has been serving the Tampa Bay area since 1955. Click here to contact Attorney Matthew Noyes for a free consultation or simply call 727-796-8282.