I AM
Jared hawkins
And this is a blog dedicated to Mississippi Workers' Compensation
As a kid growing up through the 90's, wrestling (AKA rasslin) was a BIG deal. Every Monday night, my friends and I would gather at one of our houses and watch. Back and forth between WCW and WWF we would flip the channels. Once a month, when we barely had two nickels to rub together, we would somehow scrape enough money to watch the pay-per-view event. We knew it was not “real”, but it was high level entertainment for some rowdy adolescent boys. (However, DO NOT tell the guy below it isn’t real) My brother is still an avid fan. He, along with some of his college friends, kept alive the tradition of getting together on Monday nights for rasslin. Rather than hot dogs and Mountain Dew, as we partied in the 90's as kids, they would have “wine and rasslin” on Monday nights. As he would say, it was classy redneck. When my brother decided to get married last year, where would you have expected we would have gone for the bachelor party? That’s right. Wrestlemania! Mania happened to be in Dallas, Texas that year, so off we went. Each person picked a wrestler to dress as, which was actually a ton of fun. Considering the fact that I am follically-challenged and we were in Texas, dressing as the Texas Rattlesnake “Stone Cold” Steve Austin made all of the sense in the world. If I took one picture with a random rasslin fan, then I must have taken 500. Here was our collective group: The term “offensive” when talking about rasslin generally means to cause someone to be hurt or upset. While I may want to do that at times in my practice, I try to refrain! As a defense attorney, we are always left to defend claims. However, at times, we need to be offensive, or act aggressively.
In MS, the claimant is allowed to treat with their own choice of medical provider. Like most lawyers, these doctors also have reputations, both good and bad. When a claimant on a case I am handling gets with a certain doctor, I can oftentimes predict the outcome. It is very important to know the reputation of the doctor providing treatment in your claims. Please reach out to me if you have questions regarding specific doctors. In the event your claimant gets referred, or chooses an extremely liberal medical provider, that does not necessarily limit your options. Even though the claimant does get his/her choice of medical provider, you still have the opportunity to have the claimant evaluated on an EME (employer’s medical evaluation) basis. If you need a second opinion regarding requested medical treatment, or if you are not satisfied with the ongoing treatment, you certainly have the right to have the claimant evaluated by one of your chosen medical providers for a one-time evaluation. If your medical provider disagrees with the treating provider, this opinion gives you a good-faith basis to dispute the previously-recommended medical treatment. What happens if you have competing medical opinions? Generally, one of the parties would then file a Motion for IME (independent medical evaluation). This is typically viewed as a “tiebreaker”. If the treating provider has one opinion, which is contradicted by the EME provider, the Commission can order the claimant to be evaluated by a third provider to essentially “break the tie”. More times than not, the parties are then bound by the opinion of the IME (though I have seen the Commission go against the IME on rare occasions). Sometimes it is necessary to obtain additional opinions when you have a claim which simply will not end or if you have a reason to disagree with the current medical opinions. Another tactic I have used recently to be even more aggressive is to meet with treating medical providers. Please keep in mind that if the claim is litigated, this is not an option, as that would be considered ex parte communication (the employer and carrier cannot make contact with the treating provider to discuss the merits of the case when it is in litigation). In the event the claimant has obtained counsel and not litigated the file, but has asked that I refrain from ex parte communication, I will honor the request. The most useful way to utilize this tactic is when the claimant is unrepresented and there are issues with claimant’s treatment. For example, if there are certain facts which have not been made available to a treating provider, it can be very beneficial to schedule a 15-30 minute conference with the treating provider to discuss the exact circumstances surrounding the claim to better educate the medical provider concerning the background surrounding a particular claim/injury. Or, in the event the treating provider refuses to release the claimant or provide final medical opinions, a conference to address claimant’s potential return to work can be very beneficial. This tactic is not to “earwig” a treating provider, but to simply educate them on particular circumstances surrounding your exact case which could be beneficial. If you ever need opinions regarding medical providers, our law firm has attorneys not only in Ridgeland, but also Oxford and Ocean Springs, so we are very familiar with most doctors throughout the state. However, if you have a difficult claim, such as one of those scenarios discussed above, please contact me and we can devise an aggressive plan to give you the best result possible.
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Jared HawkinsAttorney with Markow Walker in Ridgeland, MS Archives
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