Representing injured workers throughout the Twin Cities since 1989.
Were you injured while doing your job in Dakota County, Minnesota? You could be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits to cover your medical treatment and part of the wages you miss out on while you’re healing from your injury.
Although it’s perfectly legal to handle your workers’ compensation claim yourself, doing so involves filling out lots of paperwork and dealing with insurance companies that have dedicated considerable resources to minimizing the amount they pay out in claims. Rather than deal with this headache yourself, you can hire a workers’ compensation lawyer from an experienced work injury law firm like Baehman Fitzgerald. With our 90+ years of combined experience, we know how to handle insurance companies that would rather line their own pockets than provide the benefits you deserve. And because you’ll only pay us if we secure the benefits you deserve, you won’t have to pay out-of-pocket to get our experience, insight, and commitment to results.
Call our office today for a free consultation about your injury with a knowledgeable Dakota County workers’ comp attorney serving Dakota County.
Minnesota law requires nearly all employers to purchase workers’ compensation insurance for their employees. A worker is covered by this insurance the moment they begin working, even in the first half hour of their first day of work.
Workers’ compensation is an exclusive remedy in Minnesota. Under this system, an injured worker does not need to prove that someone else caused their injury to access medical benefits, partial wage replacement benefits, or other benefits outlined in Minnesota’s workers’ compensation statutes. In exchange, the injured worker is prohibited from suing their employer for their work injury, except in circumstances where the employer injured the worker purposely or maliciously.
If someone other than your employer or a coworker caused your injuries, you could be entitled to pursue compensation through a personal injury claim or lawsuit against that party.
Dakota County is home to a wide range of industries, including retail, health care, manufacturing, social assistance, publishing, transportation, computer and electronics manufacturing, and food manufacturing. Work injuries occur in each of these industries. Our workers’ compensation attorneys frequently take cases for workers with these injuries:
You have 14 days from the date of your injury to report it to your employer in writing, or they can deny your claim. In any event, you must report your injury before 180 days have passed. Your employer is supposed to file a First Report of Injury (FROI) form with their insurer within ten days of learning about your injury. The insurer has 14 days to send you a notice advising whether they will accept, deny, or pay your claim without prejudice.
If your employer submitted an FROI, you have three years from the date the FROI was filed to file a claim with the Department of Labor and Industry. When no FROI was filed, you have six years from the date of injury to file.
If you’re unsure about which deadline applies to you, an experienced attorney from a Minnesota workers’ compensation law firm can review your case and let you know what comes next.
Accidents that occur while you’re commuting to and from a job where you spend your work days are usually not compensable workers’ compensation claims. However, if you were running errands for your boss on the way to work and got injured while doing so, you may have a valid workers’ comp claim. The same is true if you were going to lunch and your boss asked you to run an errand for them on your way back.
However, the insurance company will most likely try to deny your claim because it didn’t happen at work. An experienced lawyer from a workers’ comp law firm will know how to counter such claims to pursue the benefits you’re entitled to.
If the insurance company sends you a denial notice about your workers’ compensation claim, that doesn’t have to be the end of your case. An attorney from a law firm that handles cases for injured workers can contact the insurer to discuss your case. If additional medical documentation or witnesses have come to light, the workers’ comp attorney can provide this new information that supports your claim and work to persuade the insurer to accept your claim.
In the event that the insurer will not accept your claim, you or your lawyer can request that they go to mediation with you. The Court of Administrative Hearings offers mediation services free of charge. A Workers’ Compensation Judge will act as mediator, helping the parties attempt to resolve their differences. If no agreement can be reached, requesting a hearing is the next step.
You or your attorney can file a Request for Formal Hearing form, serve the request on the other party, and make sure that the Court of Administrative Hearings gets a copy, and wait for the CAH to schedule the hearing. Both parties present their cases during the hearing. Opening statements may be required, and witnesses can testify and be cross-examined. Both parties can submit evidence. The hearing will be recorded, either by a court reporter or digitally. The Workers’ Compensation Judge will issue a Findings and Order, which is their decision.
The benefits Minnesota injured workers are entitled to claim include:
When you’ve been injured at work in Dakota County, you need a workers’ compensation attorney from Baehman Fitzgerald. Our workers’ comp lawyers have been helping injured workers for thirty years, and our 90+ years of combined experience is more than any other law firm in the area. We are focused on getting working people the benefits they deserve, and we want to help you, too.
When you call our firm, you’ll speak with a real person, not a machine. You’re not a number or “just another case” to us. You’re important, which is why we want to learn about your situation and get to know you during a free consultation. The attorney you speak with at this meeting is the one who will handle your case. You won’t be passed around to others in the firm.
So don’t wait. Call our law office today or contact us online so we can get to work on your claim right away, and at no upfront cost to you.
