I’ve been doing this for about a year. Our practice is limited to Florida, so questions regarding legal specifics in other jurisdictions I’ll have to pass on, and obviously that goes for other countries too.
We are retained by insurance carriers, but through them, represent a variety of employers, including:
- A really, really big temporary staffing agency
- A big building materials supplier
- A large network of auto dealerships
- A couple of trucking companies
- A couple of restaurant chains
- A big-ish grocery/supermarket chain
- About four hundred tiny assorted farms, restaurants, stores, workshops, lawn/landscape services, electricians, plumbing companies- pretty much any sort of business where you can get hurt.
We represent virtually no businesses who are primarily office-based. For obvious reasons, office workers tend not to injure themselves on the job.
So, g’head, ask me anything.
Are any of the businesses you work with vastly more dangerous than they appear? Say, far more car salesmen getting in accidents while on test drives than you might expect?
Nah. All the auto dealer injuries we’ve dealt with in the last ten years have involved mechanics, and occasionally car washers.
Workers’ Compensation is the “last payor” in the event that someone files multiple claims over one injury - so say you’re a salesperson and you get in an accident on a test drive, you’d usually just file a personal injury suit. Workers’ Comp cases are usually only brought in these instances to drive up the value of the secondary claim; if both claims settle or are paid out on, the workers’ compensation insurer is entitled to recoup their loss against the proceeds of the PI claim.
That said, drywall installation is remarkably dangerous, but not for the reason you’d think; people like electricians are always getting dust in their eyes because they won’t wear goggles.
Are there any types of on-the-job injuries that your policies are reluctant to pay on?
Our clients are generally reluctant to pay on any type of injury. That’s what we’re for 
In general, though, everything is on a case-by-case basis.
Claimants whose drug screen test (drug testing after any sort of workplace accident is routine with certain types of employer, particularly labor pools) comes back positive will usually have the claims denied “under the (FL) Drug-Free Workplace Act”- if we can show that the claimant was or may have been intoxicated at the time of the injury, our exposure may be reduced or even negated. In practice, there are hardly any employers (-10%) in the state who are in compliance with all the terms of the DFWA, but initially, at least, insurers tend to throw out any defenses that might be plausible and hope something sticks.
That said, most claims are initially accepted (“deemed compensable”) while we investigate them.
Back injuries are usually investigated pretty thoroughly, since generally at least a portion of the injury is pre-existing. You’d be amazed how many people over the age of 40 have herniated discs or some sort of spinal cord inpingement.