Getting Your Claim Accepted

The attorney's efforts at the beginning are to get your Claim timely filed and to get the insurance Carrier for your employer to accept the claim.  The Carrier has 18 days after disability or 10 days after employer had knowledge of injury, whichever is greater, or if the first notice of the accident or illness is a notice of indexing, then 25 days from receipt of the notice of indexing to respond by either denying the claim (by filing a C-7 Form) or accepting the claim (by filing a C-669 Form).  However, we immediately begin fighting for you by getting in touch with the insurance company and attempting to resolve any issues.  Independent of whether the Carrier accepts your claim right away, upon receiving the Notice of Indexing we will request a hearing to get your case established.  We do this because if the Carrier voluntarily accepts your claim and begins making payments, the Carrier may suspend your payments without warning.  If payments are directed by the Judge, which can only happen once the case has been established, the Carrier may only suspend or reduce your payments after requesting a hearing and being successful on the merits.  Your attorney will then be aware of the reason why the Carrier seeks suspension or reduction, and can prepare a defense in order to ensure such actions are not taken.