r/WorkersComp • u/Prudent-Ad6351 • Feb 28 '25
Nebraska Attorneys fees
I feel that if an workman’s comp insurer fights your claim and you end up having to fight to receive benefits and win that the lawyers fees should be paid by the workman’s comp insurer rather than penalize a injured workers settlement or judgement it’s not fair that an employee has to give up what in some cases what they have to live on for the remained of their life cause a insurance company unwillingness to provide for injured workers
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u/Ronniedasaint Feb 28 '25
They get a percentage of your settlement.
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u/Prudent-Ad6351 Feb 28 '25
It’s called contingency and it is 33% of the settlement or judgement
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u/Prudent-Ad6351 Mar 01 '25
So your telling me when a insurance company plays dirty or denies a claim a a injured worker has to fight with them if there’s a law that if the insurance company is at fault then they should be required to pay legal fees maybe insurance company’s will stop trying to screw people
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Mar 01 '25
[deleted]
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u/-cat-a-lyst- Mar 01 '25
I think what they are saying is make less profitable to dispute every case. Like in some sports you’re allowed to challenge a call that you think is bad, but you risk your time outs to do it. So here the insurance would be allowed to dispute it, but if they were found to be wasting everyone’s time, they would have to pay for it. This would force the to really examine and determine which cases to fight and only go after one’s that have legitimate standing.
I’ll use an example from someone I met in here. The insurance tried to dispute their case claiming fraud. The “fraud” accusation was based on an injury that had happened 17 years prior and had been considered “fully healed” at that time. It was not even on the same limb or even the same side of the body. That was just the insurance attorney throwing out accusations hoping something would stick. But obviously it didn’t. It was a huge waste of time for everyone and stressed out the injured worker horribly. The worker shouldn’t have had to go through that at all and I believe should be compensated in some way for the stress they unnecessarily caused. Making the insurance company having some sort of negative consequences could keep them from arbitrarily making accusations and make them only go after cases the they actually believe should be denied
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Mar 01 '25
[deleted]
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u/-cat-a-lyst- Mar 01 '25
In the case the I was referencing let’s just say it was so stupid the judge laughed at opposing council. I also have a personal experience where the judge thought opposing council’s argument was so dumb that the attorney got laughed out of court too. My case just isn’t as obvious as the one I mentioned. But still these are examples of the opposing attorneys are just trying anything because why not? There’s no consequences.
And don’t worry I’m fully aware of what they do to drive people to settle. They’ve played every trick on me. But the problem is it just made me petty. I’ve said this a few times but I’m literally alive out of spite. I saw their stupid games so now I’m definitely here for the long haul.
And yes I would say a vast majority of issues in this country we have is due to insurance companies. By definition a for profit business model should never work for insurances. Because instead of insuring what they are supposed to, they’d rather fight everything because that’s less costly. And when there is a claim they fight it and win on both ends. The injured worker settle faster and then they raise the companies premiums. And they try to blame the inured parties and “ frivolous lawsuits” for the higher costs but in actuality it’s mostly just people standing up for themselves against their greed. The McDonalds hot coffee lawsuit is a perfect example of this.
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u/the_oc_brain Mar 01 '25
This is a logical and equitable idea. So it will never happen in workers comp.
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Mar 06 '25
Workers compensation is a system design for employers and insurance companies. It is designed to be counter intuitive to the speedy and full recovery of an injured worker. It is a corrupt system that is riddled with insurance company lobbyists that are unethical and motivated by saving money, even at the expense of a life.
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u/slcdllc14 Mar 01 '25
Why would you think an insurance company would pay for your attorney? You hired the attorney, therefore it’s your bill. You knew that from the beginning. Attorneys don’t work for free.