If you have never filed an on-the-job injury claim before, prepare yourself for a rude shock once you file your workers’ compensation claim. In theory, Georgia’s workers’ comp. law is designed to reduce disputes between employers and employees – in fact, I believe that workers’ compensation is just as adversarial as divorce or any other hotly contested litigation.
In theory, the Georgia’s workers’ comp statute reduces conflict by eliminating fault from the claim equation. If a worker is injured, he need only prove that he was on the clock performing a duty of his employment. Negligence is not an issue. Bad judgment, if honest and unintentional, is compensible.
By comparison, you cannot recover damages in a car accident if you were at fault. For example, if you are driving a company vehicle on a delivery and you run off the road and hit a tree, workers’ comp will cover you. If you had this same accident on the weekend, you would have no source of recovery in negligence.
There is a tradeoff for not having to prove fault. In workers compensation, you cannot recover money damages for pain and suffering. Instead, the Georgia comp statute provides that you can recover for your economic loss (temporary total disbability) and for your permanent medical impairment (total or partial permanent disability). Typically, recoveries for injuries in worker’s comp are less than the same injuries in a negligence case.
Because negligence is not an issue, the “battleground” in a workers’ comp case often arises from a dispute about the severity of your injury. Often, I spend a lot of my time fighting with the insurance company over who the treating doctor ought to be.
It should come as no surprise that the insurance companies who process workers’ compensation claims in Georgia have identified dozens of doctors who take a very conservative approach to on-the-job injury claims. These doctors are likely to minimize the significance of your injury and will release you back to work quickly.
Having been in practice for over 15 years, I have met, deposed and reviewed the work of most of the doctors who you will likely see in your workers’ comp claim.
By contrast, my job is to secure for you medical care that is focused on your well being. I will also expect that your treating doctor’s loyalty is directed towards you, not to an insurance company that sends him work.
[tags] georgia workers’ comp law, workers’ comp vs. car accident, company doctor [/tags]
Jodi Ginsberg
Latest posts by Jodi Ginsberg (see all)
- The Role of an MRI in Your Workers’ Compensation Case - December 14, 2025
- How Workers’ Compensation Doctors Use Nerve Conduction Studies and EMG to Pinpoint Work Injuries - December 7, 2025
- When You’re Hurt on the Job in Georgia: Who Pays for the Emergency Room Visit? - June 23, 2025
WOW , what can I say to all that ? What is the most sickening thing is that you have to fight with an insurance company over who the treating physician is ! Meanwhile the Claimant/Patient suffers ! Obsurd !! Don’t they have the right to medical care NOW ? Not after, you have this long drawn out fight which could normally takes 3 months to get to court to end the fight !? Then the Decision, depending on the level of legal haggling going on with the Judge and all of the forces that make him go to the right or to the left to come up with his opin. This maybe a month.. Ok im tired ! Goodnite Pro Se Doctor take a conservative approach ??! That’s a joke !!(conservative approach) There so blatant it’s not funny! Example: ABC neurologist Saint Joseph Hospital , Cape Town Medical School South Africa grad 1967 conservative or does he base his opinions on a Kinsmanship or Sect with the Lawyer involved ? The Board has declared him Omniscent he can look threw your body and tell you that there is absolutely positively nothing wrong with you from a neurological point of view with out taking one test! Is that conservative, blatant arrogance or just plain stupidity ? Let me put it like this he doesn’t need a MRI,CAT scan nothing to make a opinion just his two eyes ! I know INCREDIBLE huh ?! Example Doctor XYZ has a patient for an IME by employer/insure .Claimant hurt himself working for Coca Cola ! What that patient doesn’t know is that this doctor is backed by Coca Cola !This patience is DOOMED ! Doctors have even called patience Malinger . Is this liable or slander ? Yes ! Will most WC lawyer address other injustices that arise out of your workman comp case such as this Labeling ? Maybe ! I’ve see where the Defense Lawyers write the Doctors opinion and have the doctor put his letter head on the top of the report sign it and ship it out! Of course you don’t believe ! Because these claim are obsurd ! Try ME ?? I’ll prove everything that I speak of with proof ! Pro Se
That is awful. I actually had a fall in January 2008 at my place of employment. My knee still hurts and the MRI revealed I had some degeneration, I was told I just need to lose some weight by the company assigned Dr. I was also forced to use FMLA hours which are for a chronic illness and wasn’t paid for Doctor’s appointments that were not scheduled within 2 hours at the end of my working shift. Those hours were also added to FMLA. I was under the impression that FMLA and workers’s compensation were two different things.