Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Workers compensation lawyer in Baton Rouge
An injury at work turns into paperwork, a weekly check you did not choose, and a treatment plan someone else has to approve. The first useful question is whether the numbers are even right.
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Baton Rouge is a working city. Construction and extraction account for a markedly larger share of employment here than nationally, and transportation and material moving add more on top. Those are jobs where a shoulder or a back ends a career rather than costing a few weeks, and it is why a workers comp lawyer in Baton Rouge spends so much time on the details of a claim.
Read the transcript
Here at the Tadda Law Firm, we also represent injured workers. It’s workers’ compensation commonly referred to. So a lot of people don’t even know what workers’ comp really is. If you’re an employee who is injured at work for any reason really, you’re covered by workers’ compensation. That provides really only two things. It’s different from a car accident. In a car accident, we’ve got pain and suffering, we’ve got all your wages, things like that. In workers’ comp, It’s a trade-off. You don’t have to prove any fault. It’s a no-fault system. If you’re injured while at work, with few exceptions, you’re entitled to compensation. That compensation is two things. One, your employer has to pay for all your medical treatment. You cut your finger with a knife and you know, they have to pay for the trip to the emergency room. So the medical is there. Usually it’s in the workplace setting. Typically most of what we deal with are knee, shoulders and back injuries, lifting injuries, you know, people who fall from heights and become injured. And then there’s the wage side of it. So if due to your injury, you’re unable to do your job. You’re entitled to two-thirds of your wages. So if you’re making $900 a week, you’re entitled to $600 a week for as long as you’re unable to go back to your job. I’m Erik Tadda with the Tadda Law Firm. Thanks for watching.
What workers compensation pays, and what it does not
Compensation covers two things: your medical treatment and a portion of your wages. It pays them as you go rather than accumulating toward a number at the end, which is the single biggest difference between a comp claim and an injury claim.
Fault is not part of the analysis. Nobody has to have been careless. The question is whether you were injured in the course and scope of your employment, which in plain terms means on the clock and doing your work.
It follows that a comp claim does not build value the way a car accident claim does. Break an arm, wear the cast for six weeks, get released, and go back to the same job, and the system has largely done what it is meant to do. What makes a claim substantial is permanent consequence: the shoulder that will not go overhead again, the back that will not take a ladder.
Temporary injury and permanent injury are different cases
Consider a carpenter who falls and breaks an arm. The cast goes on, the employer’s carrier pays the emergency room and the weekly benefit, and six weeks later the cast comes off and he returns to the same work at the same pay. The system did its job, and there is not much left to argue about.
Now change one fact. In the same fall he also injures a shoulder, and after surgery he recovers but cannot work overhead or hold three points of contact on a ladder. He has healed, and he still cannot do the job he trained for. Everything that matters in a compensation claim flows from that second scenario, and the Louisiana Workforce Commission publishes general resources for injured workers navigating it.
Your average weekly wage, and why it is worth checking
This is the part almost nobody examines, and it sets the value of everything else.
Your weekly benefit is calculated from your average weekly wage. For an hourly worker that generally means the four full weeks before the injury. The partial week in which you were hurt does not count, so the calculation looks back past it.
Which four weeks those turn out to be can change the number substantially.
- If that stretch happened to include short weeks, rained-out days or a slow period, the average comes out low and your check follows it down for the life of the claim.
- If it included a turnaround, one of the plant shutdowns where crews work seven days at twelve hours, the average comes out high.
- Commission earnings are looked at across a longer window than four weeks, and someone paid hourly plus bonuses can have each component calculated over its own period and then combined.
An adjuster sends a check and most people have no way of knowing whether the arithmetic behind it is right. Bring your pay records to the consultation. Working through them is straightforward, it is free, and it is one of the few things that can be corrected early with real consequences later.
Choosing your own doctor
Under La. R.S. 23:1121, you have the right to select one treating physician in any field or specialty. You do not have to treat with the doctor your employer picks, although you do have to attend examinations by a physician the employer provides and pays for.
Choose actively, and early. If you are treated by a physician your employer or insurer did not specifically send you to, the statute treats that physician as your choice. After your first choice, changing to another doctor in the same specialty needs the insurer’s consent, while moving to a doctor in a different specialty does not. If the insurer refuses your initial choice, the statute gives you the right to an expedited hearing.
When treatment is delayed or denied
A claim can be accepted and still stall. Under La. R.S. 23:1142, each health care provider may incur no more than $750 in nonemergency testing or treatment without the agreement of the insurer and the employee, so most meaningful treatment has to be approved first. In practice the physician requests it on a form known as the 1010.
If the request is denied, the next step is an appeal to the medical director of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration. Under La. R.S. 23:1203.1, that appeal must be filed within fifteen calendar days, and the medical director must decide it within thirty calendar days. A party who disagrees with the decision can then file a disputed claim within forty-five days.
There is also a practical problem worth naming: not every physician accepts workers’ compensation, so injured workers can struggle to find treatment at all.
Going back to work at lower pay
This is where the serious money in a comp claim actually sits, and it is the part clients least expect.
Suppose you earned thirty dollars an hour doing physical work. After surgery you are released, but with restrictions: no lifting over a set weight, no sustained overhead work, no ladders. A vocational rehabilitation counselor meets with your physician, establishes what you can still do, and identifies jobs that fit. Those jobs pay fifteen dollars an hour.
You are working again, and you are still losing half your income. Louisiana addresses that through supplemental earnings benefits, which can continue for up to 520 weeks. Ten years of a weekly shortfall is a significant figure, and it is normally that future stream, reduced to present value, that gets evaluated and resolved.
Fault is not the issue, course and scope is
Nobody has to have been careless for a compensation claim to exist. The question is whether the injury arose in the course and scope of employment, which in plain terms means on the clock and doing your work.
Because benefits are paid as they accrue rather than accumulating toward a settlement, a compensation claim does not build value the way an injury claim does. What makes a claim substantial is permanent consequence.
What to do if you are hurt at work
The first days set up everything that follows, and the steps are simple.
- Report the injury to your supervisor right away and ask that an incident report be prepared.
- If you are in pain, see a doctor, and tell the doctor exactly where it hurts and how it happened.
- Give your employer any work excuse or restriction the doctor provides, and keep copies.
- Keep track of mileage to and from medical appointments, which the employer also covers.
Three mistakes that weaken a claim
Not reporting the injury makes the claim harder to establish, and harder still the longer it waits. Delaying treatment lets a company argue the injury happened somewhere else, was made worse by something outside work, or was not that serious.
And shading the truth to a doctor, about the pain or about how the injury happened, undermines the medical record the whole claim depends on. Tell the doctor the truth, completely, at every visit.
How long you have to file a workers comp claim in Louisiana
They are shorter than most people expect. Under La. R.S. 23:1209, a claim for compensation is barred unless, within one year after the accident, the parties have agreed on payments or a formal claim has been filed. Where payments have been made, the period runs from the last payment instead, and it is longer for supplemental earnings benefits and for medical benefits.
Where an injury does not show up right away, the year runs from when it develops, but in no case can proceedings start more than three years after the accident. The table below sets out the main periods.
| Situation | Deadline | Source |
|---|---|---|
| No benefits have been paid | One year from the accident to agree on payments or file a formal claim | La. R.S. 23:1209(A)(1) |
| Wage benefits have been paid | One year from the last payment; three years from the last payment where supplemental earnings benefits are involved | La. R.S. 23:1209(A)(2) |
| Injury developed later | One year from when it develops, and never more than three years from the accident | La. R.S. 23:1209(A)(3) |
| Medical benefits have been paid | Three years from the last payment of medical benefits | La. R.S. 23:1209(C) |
Summarized from the statute. The exact period depends on the facts, so treat this as a reason to ask early, not a calculation.
When there is a second claim alongside the comp claim
Compensation is generally the exclusive route against an employer, but it does not always account for everyone involved. If you were stopped at a light in a company truck on the way to the next call and another driver hit you, that driver is not your employer.
Those situations can support a separate claim running alongside the compensation claim, and that separate claim is governed by the ordinary two year period in Louisiana Civil Code article 3493.1. It is one of the first things the firm looks for. Related: car accident claims in Baton Rouge.
How a workers compensation claim gets resolved
Because benefits are paid as you go, resolving a claim is really about future exposure: what is reasonably still owed, and what that is worth in today’s money.
In larger claims the firm brings in the people who can prove it. A vocational rehabilitation counselor establishes what work remains realistic. A life care planner meets the treating physicians and documents what ongoing treatment will cost. An economist converts those figures to present value, accounting for the fact that medical costs tend to outrun general inflation.
The firm makes a recommendation and explains the reasoning. The decision stays with you.
Choosing a Baton Rouge workers comp lawyer
Workers compensation is roughly a quarter of this firm’s work, and Erik Tadda has been licensed in Louisiana since 1991. Consultations are one on one with at least one attorney, and there are no legal assistants working your file in place of a lawyer.
Jeremy Hader, who devotes his practice entirely to litigation, also handles Social Security disability matters, which sometimes run alongside a serious work injury.
More: meet the attorneys, the car accident page for collisions on the job, and the communities the firm serves.
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What clients say
Reviews posted by clients on Google. Past results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome in any future case.
What does workers compensation actually pay?
Two things: your medical treatment and a portion of your wages, paid as you go rather than in a lump sum at the end. Fault is not part of it. The question is whether you were injured in the course and scope of your employment, not whose fault it was.
How is my weekly compensation check calculated?
Generally as a proportion of your average weekly wage, which for an hourly worker is based on the four full weeks before the injury. The week you were hurt is not counted. Commission earnings are looked at over a longer period, and someone paid hourly plus bonuses can have the two calculated over different periods and combined. Which four weeks get used matters a great deal, which is why the rate is worth checking.
My check seems low. Can the amount be wrong?
Yes, and most people have no way to tell. If the four week window happened to include short weeks, the average comes out low and the payment follows it down. If it included a plant turnaround with heavy overtime, it comes out high. Bring your pay records to the consultation and we will work through the arithmetic with you.
What happens if I can go back to work but not to my old job?
That gap is the heart of most serious claims. If you earned thirty dollars an hour and your restrictions leave you able to earn fifteen, the difference can continue as supplemental earnings benefits for up to 520 weeks. That stream of future payments is usually what gets valued and resolved.
Can I have a workers compensation claim and another claim at the same time?
Sometimes. If someone other than your employer caused the injury, for example another driver striking your company vehicle, there can be a separate claim alongside the compensation claim. It is one of the first things we look for.
How long do I have to file a workers’ compensation claim in Louisiana?
Generally one year from the accident, unless payments have been agreed or made. Under La. R.S. 23:1209, where wage benefits have been paid the period runs from the last payment, and where an injury develops later it runs from when it develops, but never beyond three years from the accident. Medical benefits have a three year period from the last payment.
Is the first week of workers’ compensation paid?
Not at first. Under La. R.S. 23:1224, no compensation is paid for the first week after the injury. If the disability lasts two weeks or longer, that first week is paid after the first two weeks have passed.
What if my workers’ compensation treatment is denied?
A denial is not the end of it. Louisiana provides a dispute process through the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration, with defined routes for challenging a denial of recommended treatment. Which route applies depends on what was denied and why, so bring the denial letter and the treating physician’s recommendation to the first meeting.
Can I bring a claim if the injury was partly my own doing?
Yes, in most cases. Workers’ compensation does not turn on fault. The question is whether you were injured in the course and scope of your employment, meaning on the clock and doing your work. That is very different from an accident claim, where your own share of fault can reduce or bar recovery.
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