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Doyle LLP has filed a worker’s compensation bad faith action against Safety National Casualty Corporation (“Safety National”), after an injured plaintiff was denied medical and financial entitlements as required by law.

Our client, a hardworking salesperson for Dillard’s, was involved in an  incident where her supervisor began shaking her chair to prove she was not seated properly. The jerking movements knocked our client off the chair causing her to fall  violently.  She sustained an immediate onset of severe lower back pain, followed by  a physician diagnosis of mild spinal disk collapse, stenosis, and scoliosis.

Though the plaintiff had previous back injuries, worker’s compensation law requires an insurer to cover the acceleration and aggravation (or “further damage”) of pre-existing injuries. After epidural steroid injections proved insufficient, a physician recommended spinal decompression, direct lateral fusion, and other medically necessary procedures.

These medical interventions never took place; instead our client endured repeated denials, delays of payment, humiliation, distress, and continuing economic and physical harm. Unfortunately, some insurance companies have mastered manipulating the worker’s compensation system and rules in order to minimize or deny valid claims, such as this one.

Here are some signs that a workers compensation insurer may have committed bad faith:

• Failure to conduct a reasonable investigation of the events relating to an injury
• Creating pretextual  reasons (“excuses”) to deny and/or delay payment
• Failure to recognize and acknowledge the extent  of claims in reasonable time
• Ignoring or refusing  to consider information favorable to a claim
• Failure to accept undisputed evidence supporting the claim, (and more)

Each of the above illegal actions is present in our client’s case.

Though it may be difficult for you to identify each prohibited act in your own situation, if you feel you have been wronged by the worker’s compensation process, allow our firm to pinpoint each violation. The worker’s compensation bad faith lawyers of Doyle  LLP have a consistent record of striving for success in bad faith cause of actions and can begin your path toward restoration today.