503-325-8600 JoeDiBartolomeo.com
PRST STD US POSTAGE PAID BOISE, ID PERMIT 411
1139 Exchange St. Astoria, OR 97103
What’s Inside
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We Are Here for You
Helping Your Child Manage Stress
Helping Our Personal Injury Clients
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Helping Our Social Security Disability Clients
Easter Lamb Cake
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Navigating the Workers’ Comp Maze
HOWWE CONTINUE TO NAVIGATE THE WORKERS’ COMPENSATION MAZE
Our work with injured workers varies from case to case. Some clients have an accepted claim, but we will seek to include the more serious conditions caused by the work injury or those that are not part of the claim. Other times, the claim is properly accepted, but the permanent disability benefit was not properly calculated. Some appeals are purely “paper” oriented, without a hearing. However, we still need to contend with live hearings and mediations. The latest from the hearings office is that live telephone hearings are a go beginning April 6. The presiding administrative law judge has distributed a “how to” email to all attorneys, explaining how phone hearings will take place and what we need to do to get ready. We are not sure about how flexible the judges
will be on granting postponements, but we believe they will be flexible given these uncertain times. Mediations, which are settlement conferences, are still occurring, sometimes via video or phone conference. We have upcoming settlement conferences and hope they run smoothly. We also help injured workers file a request for reconsideration of the closure of their claim. Depending on the issue, we may seek a medical examination that the state of Oregon arranges. We recently received a notice of an examination for late April but are not sure if that examination will go forward. Many insurers are canceling their own in-person insurer medical examinations, opting instead to have their doctors review medical records to provide opinions.
The Di Bartolomeo Law Office, P.C. 1139 Exchange Street | Astoria, Oregon | 503-325-8600 | www.JoeDiBartolomeo.com
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