# What do you do when your life has been stolen? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 28, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020 "2013-11-28T18:31:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/41 "2013-11-29T17:29:43Z")
You are bright and articulate enough to write your detailed OP and are able to do gym workouts and are judged fit enough for retail service work. You have a 75% disability and pull in $ 50,000. annually off this Canadian government stipend. You do not want to do work you judge to be beneath your educational level because it would be humiliating and could potentially depress you. You have chased this additional ruling you feel you are due to allow you to file a lawsuit to the point it has collapsed your family financially and emotionally. You have had 8 years to realign your life to a different method of earning a living, but have not done this. Your government has been wildly generous with you. Your sense of entitlement beggars the imagination, and to be frank with you your OP and your responses as a bright an physically able man make it sound like you are intent on milking this 8 year old injury into the ground. I can understand why the attorneys walked away from your case. Your expectations are borderline absurd at this point and you should be focusing your energies in making a living instead of being a professional victim. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/42 "2013-11-29T18:03:08Z")
> [@](#): > > You’ve already committed 8 years of your life trying to fight a battle against Goliath. You have no one to support your claims, including your former company, WCB, your own lawyers, and your own doctors. at one point I went to the local injured workers society to see if they could help me. It took me 45 minutes to convince them that I was telling the truth and another half an hour for him to wrap his head around the details. The guy said that in over 35 years of doing this he had never heard of this happening and that I needed a lawyer, not him. > [@](#): > > But instead of accepting the 75% disability, brushing yourself off, and starting down a new path, you are considering extending this un-winnable war, and continue fighting. The 75% disability is a rating of how disabled I am. It is based on the AMA permanent impairment guidelines. To me it is worth about $500.00 a month. It is just a rating system used to define how much money I would get without my earnings replacement. the two are then added together to give me my monthly pension payment. Here is an excerpt from the guidelines. CLASS V SEVERE IMPAIRMENT 51% - 75% The worker: i. exhibits a chronic and severe inability to function both in and out of the home This is why they say I can’t return to work. With that being said I am not sure what new path I am expected to go down. > [@](#): > > Ask yourself this: How’s the fight working out for you? Seriously. How is it working out for you? From what I’m reading, you’re: a) nearly bankrupt; b) bitter; c) frustrated; d) alienating your wife and kids. > > Sounds like it’s not working at all. It’s not working out very well at all. That is why I decided to try to go public with it, maybe someone will see it and take up my cause. I have a solid, evidence based case and if I could find a lawyer who is up and coming and wants to make a name for themselves, they may take the case pro-bono. This is one of the hardest things i have ever done in my life, I am scared to death, I have always been afraid to rock the boat and potentially lose what little I have left. That is why it has taken so long, I would push ahead, get scared and retreat. This is absolutely my last kick at the can, and just writing about it is messing me up, but like I said before I am stubborn and I really want closure. On the bankruptcy issue, if I had of signed the papers last year when I saw the trustee I would have been free and clear of the bankruptcy now, but I don’t want to do that, I hope that some day I will be able to repay my debts. Stupid, yes,if this last try doesn’t work will I file, yes I have no choice, but not until I have done everything in my power to fix this mess. > [@](#): > > Dude, you’ve already bet your bottom dollar, and you lost. Your only good choice is to walk away and accept it. Not yet, if this doesn’t work then yep, you’re right, but not yet. > [@](#): > > And I have complete faith that my family wouldn’t have put up with my “Woe is me, I’ve had my life stolen” schtick for very long, and most certainly not for eight years. Yeah, what happened sucks, but it is what it is. It is what it is. There IS no adequate compensation. Just like there’s no adequate compensation for the millions of people in the world who’ve been injured in accidents, or diagnosed with dread diseases, or been victims of senseless, horrible crimes. > > You’ve already ceded 8 years of your life to this accident. How much more are you willing to lose? Your family? Do you honestly believe that they are going to excuse your irritability and preoccupation for much longer? How much more damage are you willing to inflict on yourself, on them, before you wave the white flag already and admit defeat? Because you need to close that chapter on your life before you can move to another. Well, I am grateful that my family has sided with me and stuck with me this long, they are why I am doing this. There lives have been affected just as much as mine if not worse. Having to take them out of sports that they love because we can’t afford it is heartbreaking, having to say no all the time kills me. You don’t seem to realize that the next chapter is going to be the same as this one, the only difference is I won’t be trying to fix it. If i walk away now and just accept for being what it is, I have wasted those years fighting, and I will still be in the exact same position that i am in now, nothing will have changed, and every time I have to say no to then I will be reminded why, because I gave up. > [@](#): > > Rebuild your life the way you would have had there been no one at fault, no one to blame. At the end of the day, you’ve got one body, one mind, and one life, and you’re wasting them. I know, you are right and I think about that every day, I just have no idea what else to do. > [@](#): > > Shit happens to everyone. How you deal with it is what defines you as a man. My wife just sat down with me and I read your last paragraph to her, she thought it was brilliant. However, my choices are limited, and I think that what defines me as a man is the fact that I refuse to back down and let this go. If I was wrong or didn’t have the evidence to prove all of this I would have backed down long ago. I was brought up to fight for what was right, to do the right thing, and in my mind this is the right thing. I may be wrong but I want my children to know that you don’t quit when the going gets tough, if you are right you stand your ground and fight for what is right. Throughout history no battles were won by backing down. Rosa Parks didn’t back down, Nelson Mandela didn’t, Gandhi didn’t the list goes on. Now before you start jumping all over me for using these example, I by no means am comparing myself to them, I’m just using them as an an example of people who faced immense challenges and won. One thing that you have to realize is that the one thing they want me to do is quit and go away. The system is modeled on deny, deny, deny and a lot of people accept this and walk away, like my LTD. My lawyer was telling me that in a lot of cases in which people were denied benefits a simple letter from a lawyer gets the benefits reinstated. The companies initially deny benefits in hopes that clients accept this and go away, remember they are not in it to make you feel better, it’s all about money at the end of the day. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/43 "2013-11-29T18:07:02Z")
> [@](#): > > I could see some level of temporary disability due to a phycological fear of electricity maybe. I have just never heard of anything like this before from electricity. Of courcse there are a lot of things I have never heard of. I would like for you to just take a look at this study, it’s a .pdf but it is only four pages long… [http://www.electricalinjury.com/publications/MORSE\_EMBS\_DEI\_03.pdf](http://www.electricalinjury.com/publications/MORSE_EMBS_DEI_03.pdf) ---
**Author:** ![PlainJain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5daacb/32.png) [@PlainJain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PlainJain)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/44 "2013-11-29T18:17:34Z")
> [@JFLuvly](#): > > Rosa Parks didn’t back down, Nelson Mandela didn’t, Gandhi didn’t the list goes on. Oh. No. You. Di’int. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/45 "2013-11-29T18:38:29Z")
> [@](#): > > I understand you’d be suing your employer for the accident at work. And not having proper coverage. > [@](#): > > Correct me if I’m wrong. You’re legally 75% disabled. Your employer’s worker’s comp policy pays you for the 75% disability, because the accident happened at work. Why would you be entitled to any more lost wages than that? Why does it matter if they were able to get the policy back dated to get you your benefits if the outcome is equitable and to your benefit? As I stated before the 75% is just a number and is worth about $500.00 a month to me, try not to get too caught up in the 75 number when comparing it to finances. The importance of the 75% disability lies in the fact that on the scale it is considered class 5. It is about one step below being dead.This is why I mention it, to try to explain the significance of my injury. > [@](#): > > The description of your accident is that you bumped the bus bar with your arm shocking yourself. I’m really sorry you got hurt. I work with people who work on power systems up to 345 KV and I can’t imagine doing it, frankly. But I’m not seeing anything at all suggesting your employer was negligent in causing the actual accident. No my fingers stuck to the bussbar for three to five seconds according to the guy who was with me, I don’t remember what happened. I know what I was doing when it happened, but I don’t remember what happened when I touched it. First, right now i am not saying they were negligent, this is about not having comp coverage and accepting liability. I would like to add that my lawyer seems to think that there may be at least two third party liability suits, but WCB has to file them not me. This is not what I am fighting for here, right now. > [@](#): > > You are bright and articulate enough to write your detailed OP and are able to do gym workouts and are judged fit enough for retail service work. You have a 75% disability and pull in $ 50,000. annually off this Canadian government stipend. . I do not pull in $50,000 annually, I used that as an example of what I could make work without too much pressure, It’s about $30,000, if you must know, for a family of four. > [@](#): > > You do not want to do work you judge to be beneath your educational level because it would be humiliating and could potentially depress you. You have chased this additional ruling you feel you are due to allow you to file a lawsuit to the point it has collapsed your family financially and emotionally. You have had 8 years to realign your life to a different method of earning a living, but have not done this I didn’t say I did not want to do the work, the doctors said it was not in my best interest. Secondly, just do the math, I would be making less as a WalMart greeter than I would on my pension, it just becomes a matter of economics. I 6take the job, lose my pension and where does that leave me, worse off than where I am now, of course that would have a significant negative effect on me. No I have not realigned my life, there is no work around here that I could do that would pay me more than my pension, WCB would not pay for any retraining or education, they just said NO, he’s not capable of being retrained. You have to realize also that they never pay for a university degree, they pay for things like a 4 month computer course and send you on your way. > [@](#): > > Your government has been wildly generous with you. Your sense of entitlement beggars the imagination, and to be frank with you your OP and your responses as a bright an physically able man make it sound like you are intent on milking this 8 year old injury into the ground. I can understand why the attorneys walked away from your case. Your expectations are borderline absurd at this point and you should be focusing your energies in making a living instead of being a professional victim. Milking it, if I am milking it all I am getting is a few drops in the bottom of the bucket. Am I smart, yeah I guess, the testing seems to say so. I have retained most of my mental abilities from before the accident, but my short term memory is pretty bad, it’s getting a little better and they attribute that to the possibility that my brain is learning new ways to save memories, possibly opening new pathways. How do I remember a lot of this stuff to do with the accident? Well i think that is because I have dealt with it every day for 8 years, almost obsessed with it, and a lot of that is from the fear of forgetting it. The lawyers are willing to take the case until they are faced with WCB, then they realize the expense and time involved. Once again it all boils down to economics. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/46 "2013-11-29T18:40:06Z")
> [@](#): > > Oh. No. You. Di’int. Yeah I did, but I also made it a point to say I was not putting myself in the same category as them. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/47 "2013-11-29T18:56:18Z")
> [@JFLuvly](#): > > And not having proper coverage. But they secured the coverage retroactively and you’ve reaped the benefits of that coverage, correct? So no actual damage was done by their conduct. > [@JFLuvly](#): > > As I stated before the 75% is just a number and is worth about $500.00 a month to me, try not to get too caught up in the 75 number when comparing it to finances. The importance of the 75% disability lies in the fact that on the scale it is considered class 5. It is about one step below being dead.This is why I mention it, to try to explain the significance of my injury. But why are you entitled to more than this? This is the coverage you were entitled to and you got it. If they had the policy in place before the accident it’s all you would’ve been entitled to. They managed to retroactively get the policy and provided you with the benefits you were owed. From everything you’ve said it sounds like you owe the people who got that policy in place retroactively an enormous debt of gratitude. > [@JFLuvly](#): > > No my fingers stuck to the bussbar for three to five seconds according to the guy who was with me, I don’t remember what happened. I know what I was doing when it happened, but I don’t remember what happened when I touched it. First, right now i am not saying they were negligent, this is a **bout not having comp coverage and accepting liability**. I would like to add that my lawyer seems to think that there may be at least two third party liability suits, but WCB has to file them not me. This is not what I am fighting for here, right now. But they had worker’s comp coverage and you received the benefit of it. What difference does it make that they got it retroactively? Honestly you’re starting to remind me of my toddler who gets angry and refuses to accept what he wants if I don’t give it to him the right way or fast enough. > [@JFLuvly](#): > > I do not pull in $50,000 annually, I used that as an example of what I could make work without too much pressure, It’s about $30,000, if you must know, for a family of four. If you can make $50,000 a year without putting too much pressure on yourself, why aren’t you? ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/48 "2013-11-29T19:05:40Z")
I would like to point out how the WCB decides how much money you get for a permanent disability pension. I think it may be important for you guys to understand the difference between a pension and lost wages. When I was first hurt and the comp kicked in it was a temporary earnings replacement. This lasted for about a year I think, and was less than one third of my regular pay, not counting bonuses and overtime. Then if you are still off work after that time period they put you on a permanent earning replacement benefit which is worth a few hundred more. The WCB bases the calculations not on your income but on a scale, this scale has a cutoff limit. When I was hurt the upper limit of this scale was around $40,000. What this means is that even if you made one million dollars a year in income they do not pay any more than the upper limit of the scale. So now you million dollar salary has been reduced to $40,000 dollars. Next they take the taxes off of this and give you 75% of what is left. Once you are on a permanent lifetime pension this increases to 85%, which works out to around $30,000 per year. There is no Cost of Living increase yearly, what you get is one half of one percent of the consumer price index, which works out to between 1 and 2 dollars a year increase in your pension. And not that it matters but the other half of a percent, they keep for themselves. This is why it is important for me to be able to sue for lost wages, I am losing out on a lot of money that they don’'t even take into consideration that I made. This would also stand true if you were a surgeon in a hospital, and had an accident at work, you would get the same amount of money as me. I hope that may put it in a better perspective for you. I had to fight for two years to get them to pay for my gym membership, even though all the doctors signed letters saying that they should pay for it as it would help in my rehabilitation. It got to the point where I had to go to the workers advisory panel, a group set up by the WCB to help claimants fight decisions, and the president himself told me that the system was in no way set up the be of any benefit for per-accident high wage earners and that the odds of an accident like this happening to someone like me were very low. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/49 "2013-11-29T19:07:23Z")
There’s healthy, reasonable, getting-somewhere-with-your-fight stubbornness, and then there’s pathological, won’t-deal-with-reality-and-am-ruining-my-life stubbornness - which side of the line do you think you’re falling on here? ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/50 "2013-11-29T19:08:33Z")
> [@](#): > > But they secured the coverage retroactively and you’ve reaped the benefits of that coverage, correct? So no actual damage was done by their conduct. > [@](#): > > But why are you entitled to more than this? This is the coverage you were entitled to and you got it. If they had the policy in place before the accident it’s all you would’ve been entitled to. They managed to retroactively get the policy and provided you with the benefits you were owed. From everything you’ve said it sounds like you owe the people who got that policy in place retroactively an enormous debt of gratitude. No, read my above post explaining how they pay me. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/51 "2013-11-29T19:09:58Z")
> [@](#): > > If you can make $50,000 a year without putting too much pressure on yourself, why aren’t you? When did I say I could make $50,000? I meant that 50,000 would make life easier for us, not making that much without much pressure on me. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/52 "2013-11-29T19:12:46Z")
> [@JFLuvly](#): > > When I was first hurt and the comp kicked in it was a temporary earnings replacement. This lasted for about a year I think, and was less than one third of my regular pay, not counting bonuses and overtime. Then if you are still off work after that time period they put you on a permanent earning replacement benefit which is worth a few hundred more. The WCB bases the calculations not on your income but on a scale, this scale has a cutoff limit. When I was hurt the upper limit of this scale was around $40,000. What this means is that even if you made one million dollars a year in income they do not pay any more than the upper limit of the scale. So now you million dollar salary has been reduced to $40,000 dollars. Next they take the taxes off of this and give you 75% of what is left. Once you are on a permanent lifetime pension this increases to 85%, which works out to around $30,000 per year. There is no Cost of Living increase yearly, what you get is one half of one percent of the consumer price index, which works out to between 1 and 2 dollars a year increase in your pension. And not that it matters but the other half of a percent, they keep for themselves. > > **This is why it is important for me to be able to sue for lost wages** , I am losing out on a lot of money that they don’'t even take into consideration that I made. This would also stand true if you were a surgeon in a hospital, and had an accident at work, you would get the same amount of money as me. I hope that may put it in a better perspective for you. No, this is why people get a long term disability policy. So that if they’re disabled by an accident they don’t lose all their income minus the low amount disability pays. You have a policy, and you’re currently litigating your denial. Why isn’t that enough? Why does your former employer owe you lost wages for an unfortunate accident? You got the worker’s comp benefits they were required to provide. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/53 "2013-11-29T19:16:53Z")
> [@JFLuvly](#): > > When did I say I could make $50,000? I meant that 50,000 would make life easier for us, not making that much without much pressure on me. I thought you meant you could earn $50,000 without too much pressure on your disability. That’s fine. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/54 "2013-11-29T19:25:05Z")
> [@](#): > > There’s healthy, reasonable, getting-somewhere-with-your-fight stubbornness, and then there’s pathological, won’t-deal-with-reality-and-am-ruining-my-life stubbornness - which side of the line do you think you’re falling on here? That’s a good question, I don’t know. What I do know is that fight or no fight, nothing is going to change. I’m really not sure what you expect me to do. I am no less disabled than I was 8 years ago, there are no employers beating my door down wanting to hire someone who is a liability or safety issue. Lets say I take a job and forget to do something very important, like close a valve or something, and someone gets hurt or dies. With all the due diligence we have in the workplace today, who is going to be held liable? My employer for letting me do stuff knowing that I may screw it up, given my disability, or me for working on something that the doctors told me I shouldn’t do. I wish it was as cut and dry as you guys think it is. A lot of my old co-workers and equals at my old job have left for the in sands in Alberta and are miking in the $200,000 per year range. Do you really think I would put myself and my family through all this on a whim or to get out of having to go to work everyday? On the chance that I might win a lawsuit that after eight years hasn’t even come close to happening? And if it did, I could probably make that much money in less than ten years? I mean seriously, I appreciate all the comments,but I’m not trying to beat the system, I’m just trying to get what I feel is rightfully mine. If I just wanted to beat the system I would have found a job under the table, paying cash and worked on the side and kept my pension. Even this is not an option for me, as I am really not capable of doing very much, for any amount of time in a structured world. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/55 "2013-11-29T19:40:36Z")
> [@](#): > > No, this is why people get a long term disability policy. So that if they’re disabled by an accident they don’t lose all their income minus the low amount disability pays. You have a policy, and you’re currently litigating your denial. Why isn’t that enough? > > Why does your former employer owe you lost wages for an unfortunate accident? You got the worker’s comp benefits they were required to provide. To address the first part, if i win the LTD case, all I am going to get is about $125 dollars a month. They subtract my WCB payment from what I get from them and give me what is left. The main reason I am fighting for that is because there is $110,000 dollar life insurance policy attached to it so that if something happens to me at least my family will get that. I am sure you can see that it means nothing to me, that is for my family. The second ifs that tey have to help pay for medical expenses incurred as a result of the accident. Their policy does pay for some things that the WCB does not cover. The first thing that comes to mind is massages, it has been recommended that I try massages as a form of therapy on my neck, but WCB does not cover them, the LTD policy does. I know it seems trivial but it is one of the things covered by them and not WCB. The second part is because if they had been a small company, they never would have got there coverage backdated, it just would not happen. Please do not think for one minute that they did this to help me, it was done to protect them. Within weeks of the accident they turned there back on me, disconnected my cell phone, demanded tools and computers back and threatened me not to go to WCB. I don’t want to discuss the threat parts, but it happened. They insisted that I file for sick unemployment and let the comp thing go, this stopped as soon a they realized it was out of my hands. There are still a lot of things that I have not talked about and probably won’t because a lot of it is pretty private and I 'm not ready yet, and some of it i can’t absolutely prove, I can tell you that there was a lot of scrambling and nervous people around during those first few months. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/56 "2013-11-29T19:41:57Z")
> [@](#): > > I thought you meant you could earn $50,000 without too much pressure on your disability. That’s fine. Sorry for not being clear. This is one of the reasons I want to do this. As I said I want to try to put this all in one place, something I should have done long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/848f3c/32.png) [@Fuzzy\_Dunlop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fuzzy_Dunlop)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/57 "2013-11-29T19:47:35Z")
> [@JFLuvly](#): > > To address the first part, if i win the LTD case, all I am going to get is about $125 dollars a month. They subtract my WCB payment from what I get from them and give me what is left. The main reason I am fighting for that is because there is $110,000 dollar life insurance policy attached to it so that if something happens to me at least my family will get that. I am sure you can see that it means nothing to me, that is for my family. The second ifs that tey have to help pay for medical expenses incurred as a result of the accident. Their policy does pay for some things that the WCB does not cover. The first thing that comes to mind is massages, it has been recommended that I try massages as a form of therapy on my neck, but WCB does not cover them, the LTD policy does. I know it seems trivial but it is one of the things covered by them and not WCB. Ok, your LTD is awful. I didn`t realize that. > [@JFLuvly](#): > > The second part is because if they had been a small company, they never would have got there coverage backdated, it just would not happen. Please do not think for one minute that they did this to help me, it was done to protect them. Within weeks of the accident they turned there back on me, disconnected my cell phone, demanded tools and computers back and threatened me not to go to WCB. I don’t want to discuss the threat parts, but it happened. They insisted that I file for sick unemployment and let the comp thing go, this stopped as soon a they realized it was out of my hands. There are still a lot of things that I have not talked about and probably won’t because a lot of it is pretty private and I 'm not ready yet, and some of it i can’t absolutely prove, I can tell you that there was a lot of scrambling and nervous people around during those first few months. That sounds very hurtful. I’m sorry that happened. But why does the company owe you lost wages for your unfortunate accident? They gave you worker’s comp benefits. ---
**Author:** ![LurkerInNJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@LurkerInNJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkerInNJ)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/58 "2013-11-29T19:57:51Z")
> [@Cat\_Whisperer](#): > > There’s healthy, reasonable, getting-somewhere-with-your-fight stubbornness, and then there’s pathological, won’t-deal-with-reality-and-am-ruining-my-life stubbornness - which side of the line do you think you’re falling on here? Well put. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/59 "2013-11-29T20:28:39Z")
> [@](#): > > That sounds very hurtful. I’m sorry that happened. But why does the company owe you lost wages for your unfortunate accident? They gave you worker’s comp benefits. Thanks, but trust me, I am well beyond the hurt feelings stage. The two problems I have with them getting me comp benefits are 1) As I explained just above, the payments are barely enough to live on once you get what they actually pay as opposed to what I was making. and 2) The means in which they got the coverage was fraudulent. First they tried to cover up the accident and pretend it did not happen, remember as per the rules I did what I was supposed to do, report the accident to my bosses and to the manager of the plant that I was at. I then went to the hospital. They on the other hand did not report the accident to anyone, and by they I not only mean my boss but also the company I was at. When it did get back to the WCB that I was hurt, they tried to get out of having to accept liability by saying that they did not need coverage because they only had one employee in my province, once they realized that that would not work, they outright lied and said that they had more than three employees here, which, even if playing the stupid card, is no excuse to not have the coverage in the first place. Just the fact that they wrote two letters a week apart that said they only had one employee in the province and did not need coverage only to change it to we had three employees a week later, after receiving a letter from the plant I was at telling them that they would qualify if they had three or more employees, speaks volumes to a coverup. and I do have these letters in my file. Next comes the fact that it is illegal to operate a business in my province without WCB coverage, and the plant I was at was very strict about this, I know because I had done other work for them there as a sub-contractor and I was not allowed in the building in that capacity without coverage, and not that it’s important but I used to golf with and go for beers with the upper management, so not even being buddies with them got me any slack on those rules. With that said I can guarantee you that at some point my employers signed off as being covered as did the other four or five companies that I did work for there over the years. There was a form that had to be signed proving coverage, and if i remember correctly it had your account number on it. This was not an oversight, because at first there was talk that they signed and had coverage. Then there is the fact that it is an offense here to not report a serious accident to the department of labour, also not done. The WCB rules, that they themselves are supposed to follow, state that any charges of fraud are to be investigated to the full extent and that employers are not allowed to interfere with any employees claim, including threatening them. They did none of this. I brought it to there attention that there was no way there were more than three employees, they did nothing. When I asked to see the names of the employees that I was supposedly working with daily they said that they could not provide them because it was a breach of privacy??? The threats were never addressed, this goes on and on, but I have to stop for a while, I’m getting confused. So why do I think they owe me, because they all lied, cheated and circumvented the rules to help everyone involved. At the end of the day they all walked away pretty damn clean, except for me. I am going to take a break from the keyboard for a bit, I have been here way too long. Keep the comments coming, I know a lot of you don’t agree with me but it is helping and I do appreciate it. ---
**Author:** ![JFLuvly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac91a4/32.png) [@JFLuvly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JFLuvly)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2013, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020/60 "2013-11-29T20:59:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Well put. Look I don’t disagree, but you have to realize that I really have nothing to lose here, nothing, pretty much everything is gone already. My family is not going anywhere, we are doing the best we can to the best for our kids. Outside of our four walls, we really have no other family. we may not function like we used to, but I think we are doing a good job raising our kids, they seem well rounded, I always get good reports about them, everyone likes them. We are working through this and I’m pretty confident that we will all come out the other side still standing beside one another. Is it easy, hell no, but we are surviving. If I just stop right now nothing will change, the only difference will be that things will not get any better. I have tried to let this go many times, but it just keeps coming back to me every time I struggle. Like I said before this is my last kick at the can, if this doesn’t work, well I can look at myself in the mirror and say I did everything in my power to fix this. I can’t do that until I have done the one thing that I have not done yet, and that is try to garner some public support. Everyday we see social media helping people resolve problems, it’s a new way to bring to light wrongs done to people who otherwise would not have a voice on their issues. The way I see it, You guys here are the most skeptical group I know, and if I can get you guys to side with me I can get anyone to side with me. Not that anyone is siding with me yet, but I think you would if you looked at it from a purely legal standpoint other than a moral issue or thinking of me as saying boo-hoo look at me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-you-do-when-your-life-has-been-stolen/675020.md?page=4)