Going back to work is probably the most difficult aspect for families when they get in an accident. Because we all live in paycheck to paycheck. I’ve got a wife and three kids, teenage boys, a breakup in the flow, cash flow, all of a sudden, mortgage behind, the car loans behind.
In Florida, under the PIP insurance or PIP, that $10,000 reservoir, 60% of that will be used for your wages. Well, if you make $1,000 a week, you’re going to get $600, you’re already behind the eight ball, okay.
What we’ll do then is we’ll find out if you have other coverage at work, and you won’t believe how many people pay for it that don’t know they have it, but it’s called short term/long term. So we’ll go, look at that, process those documents. You have to file a claim against your own insurance to get your wages.
And if you have short term/long term, Aflac, quack, quack, quack, whatever it is, then we’ll go, get it for you and that will supplement you to get 100%.
You need three things filled out, or you don’t get your wages.
(1), your PIP policy, you’ve got to have your policy form filled out, signed and sent to the insurance company, your
insurance company. We send it by certified mail and by fax and by scan and emailing, just to make sure they’ve got it because that’s the road map for the adjuster.
(2), you’ve got to have a doctor to take you off work. You’ve got to have the slip, just like they give you a slip that says “here’s your prescription for painkillers, muscle relaxers, antibiotics.” They don’t give you a slip at work, off work for two weeks.
(3), you’ve got to have a Wage and Salary Verification. That means, we’ve got to go to work and go back 13 weeks and get what you were paid. Those three things have to happen in unison all at once, or they won’t pay. And when they get it, they have 30 days to pay.
So that’s the first thing we do is once we get that off-work slip, we go, get the three things, help them go online, generate the 13-week wage statement, get it in there, and then they start getting paid.
Finally, we recommend, you need to contact your human resource person at work. The person, the victim of an accident that calls their boss man immediately and says, “Hey man, I’m giving you a heads-up, I’m hurt. I’ve hired a lawyer; he’s going to do all the documents. Is there anything I need to fill out so I don’t lose my job?”
In this economy, we want to get people back to work. I know that some lawyers practice differently, they may tell you to stay out work a long time, and things will be great.
Let’s get back to work as soon as we can. That’s my motto.
