Ok, but having said all that, do you understand/agree that those minimally acceptable payments you’ve been receiving are what your employer/wc was supposed to pay out? That, while shitty, your situation is much the same as anyone else’s with a similar accident at a more responsible company? You’re getting the same payments you’d have gotten if none of those things happened and everything was proper.
If the employer had their WC policy in place and did nothing dishonest or underhanded and neither did anybody else, you’d still be awarded about $30,000 year, right?
Absolutely, but like I said before, I don’t live in what ifs. That is not what happened, it’s not reality, my circumstances, in reality, are far different.
Yes, you are correct.
I would like to point out that they only did themselves a favour, not me, by backdating the coverage. I would still have had my LTD in place which is about the same as what I have with WCB. The original reason for cutting off my LTD was because of a lack of medical proof. This is pretty typical for LTD companies, when switching to a permanent disability after a year, as I explained earlier. Like I pointed out the WCB put me at a 75% disability, they don’t just do that without medical proof. The criteria for a permanent disability with my LTD is less than required by the WCB, so I would have easily had that put back in place. They knew this and that’s why they went to the overpayment issue, which never would have happened if the WCB was not backdated.
No, not at all. I want advice, I want opinions, I want help. If by chance some agree with me, that gives me one of the things I am lacking most…confidence. And yes I will take that, but looking for cheerleaders, definitely not.
Don’t be obtuse. He is looking to win people over to his way of thinking on this. Able-bodied people (especially those on the other side of the continent, babbling on the internet) generally have little sympathy for this kind of thing so I think he has a point that if he can make his case here he can make it anywhere.
My point isn’t that you should live in what ifs, it’s that your current predicament is no worse - or even different - than if everything was done right.
It’s been 8 years and the LTD still hasn’t accepted your permanent disability claim. You’re currently litigating the issue to try to get them to pay. It’s more than a little obtuse to say you’d still have your LTD, if the employer hadn’t managed to get your WC benefits for you. If the employer didn’t do that, you’d have a LTD case nearly a decade later and no money. How would you have gotten by these past 8 years waiting for the LTD policy without the worker’s comp?
On a different note - My father was permanently disabled. He had a degenerative neurological disorder he inherited from his mother. He couldn’t work after age 40 and by the time he was 50 he was too sick to get any enjoyment out of life.
When he died at 59, I don’t think he ever was able to accept his rotten lot in life. It’s sad and unfair that he lost so much and died so young. It’s sad all the opportunity and promise fizzled out.
Having talked to you, I’m glad he at least didn’t have anybody to blame. I can’t imagine the process of accepting that your high income career is permanently ruined by a meaningless accident - but it sounds like after 8 years you’re still obsessing about clerical errors that had no impact on your life at all.
What’s your point? I don’t disagree, the toughest and most informed crowd in my world would be here. Is there a problem with that? The whole internet is out there and I chose to start here for those exact reasons. I’m not looking for pity or anything that resembles it, I’m looking for input. As for able bodied people not having much sympathy, that is fine, but if the tables were turned they would have a far greater understanding. This is one of the problems with this type of thing, most people don’t have experience in it and don’t have a good grasp on how the system works. I was one of them and believe me it was a real eye opener.
A prime example of this was when I said that I called My LTD and discussed the WCB payments coming in. They deny me saying this. When I received my file from them before our discovery hearing, they had three contact sheets filled out. I called and spoke to them at least 50 times over the course of six years and according to them I only spoke to them three times. At one point I said to my my case manager…“I want you to write this down, I am begging you to help me resolve this issue, the stress it’s causing me is too much and I need your help”. There is no record of that call. The problem was, every time I called I dialed a 1-800 number and I have no access to these phone records. I have to go before a judge and get a court order to have them released, otherwise I have no proof that I called them.
Yes, but everything was not done right, and I am the one suffering. I have said I would have had to accept it if it was above board, but it wasn’t.
They are not fighting the permanent disability, they are fighting the overpayment. They say i disqualified myself by violating the terms of the agreement. It is there best argument, even my lawyer thinks that at the very least they will have to buy me out. They don’t care if they pay me now, they will fight to the end, which will be a court date, then probably make an offer to buy me out. The last thing they want is a president set in court.
I would say that at the very most my claim would have been reinstated within three months of them cutting me off, I would not of had to fight for 8 years.
This was far from a meaningless accident and way more than a simple clerical error.
I have no idea why you think it had no impact on my life.
I certainly don’t think it had no impact on your life. It clearly had a huge detrimental impact on your life. I mean the accident itself was meaningless. If it was caused by the employer’s negligence you could crusade against their greed. If it happened while you were drunk you could hate yourself for being drunk. (I don’t think you’re a drunk - I was making an example) But based on everything you said, and as is generally the case with accidents, this was a horrible chance occurrence that happened for no reason at all and it’s drastically changed your life for the worse.
I understand you think the policy shenanigans were more than a clerical error. You are clearly very invested in the whole issue and have a lot to say about it. But if the error has caused any financial hardship for you, you haven’t told us yet.
Can you explain in financial terms how you’d have any more money if the wc policy was in place at the time of the accident, instead of retroactively? You’d be earning $30,000 either way and life would still be really unfair and difficult.
You’re right, but at least I tried, I have no idea what I would do then. That being said I really don’t think I would lose. It’s the law that they automatically accept full liability, kind of like rear ending someone in a car accident, at least here, you are automatically in the wrong.
Well it’s kind of my point. If I was awarded lost wages in a court, it would be actual lost wages, not a percentage of a number that was far less than what I was actually making. Perhaps sue is not the right term, but it’s generally what I mean. Not having WCB coverage would entitle me to recover my losses through them, they would be liable. I don;'t know if you have seen an actuarial report before or not, but future lost wages a based on potential increases in pay, cost of living increases and the like. It’s not just you made this much last year so you get that amount times 27 years, here’s your money, have a nice day. So in that respect I feel it has caused me financial hardship.
I’m not disputing that, to me it’s a non issue because of the fact that none of those things were in place when I was injured. You are right, my life would suck just as bad now, the only difference being is that there would be nothing I could do about it.
Yes I screwed up, yes I’ve wasted a shitload of time, but it was mostly because I was scared to death. I wanted nothing more than to keep the home I bought and was very proud of. Every time I thought about doing this I would get completely panicked and back off because I thought if I rocked the boat too much they would figure out a way to cut off my income and I would have nothing and wind up losing the very things I was trying so hard to protect. The difference now is that I am no longer living in my home, the bank repossessed it, my credit is screwed and I don’t even have a telephone anymore. What else have I got to lose at this point? Nothing. So why not try to do what I fantasied about doing for years, but was too much of a pussy to take the step and do. All the things I was afraid of losing are gone now anyway, there’s nothing left for them to take from me. It’s not even a gamble anymore, it’s a Hail Mary pass that I have no idea where it’s going to land. Nothing ventured, nothing gained I suppose.
Being right and winning and then collecting are two different things.
You mentioned earlier that your wife only collected about seven cents on the dollar on the vast sum of money she lost in an accident (I’m not sure how she lost cash in an accident and only got back seven cents on the dollar, but whatever).
In this certain situation, I was one million percent right, had all the proofs, experts and verification by independent sources. I earned the money and I believe the expression is “the books were cooked” on work I did as a teenager. My money was stolen, and it added up to an astonishing amount. I couldn’t prosecute at this point, but I could sue those involved. I was right right right right right a million times right. And the defendants had very little money left and the likelihood of them filing for bankruptcy and transferring their assets (fraudulently or not) was very high. So I had to decide if I wanted to devote more time and resources to this and possibly walk away with nothing no matter how right I was, or make the best deal possible for the best possible outcome for me under these less than ideal circumstances. I made the deal. To me, seven cents on the dollar was better than zero cents on the dollar. I had to take my emotions out of it and use my head.
What you aren’t seeing is that nothing is a sure thing and the ideal circumstances you have set up in your head and your stubbornness aren’t quite meshing with the reality of your situation.
Why are you so certain you’d prevail in a personal injury lawsuit, if you were able to get out from under the Worker’s Comp umbrella? You say there was no employer negligence involved in the accident. I can see how it would be likely you might win in a suit forcing them to personally provide the equivalent worker’s comp benefits they deprived you of by lacking coverage… but why would you be awarded your full lost wages?
I get that there would be no technical limit on your award, but why do you think you’d win that? What’s the tort?
It was a personal injury case and after nine years and being broke we settled for far less than what the lawyer said the case was worth, pretty straight forward. Once again to save the things we were trying to hold on to, our home and our credit.
I understand, but we are comparing apples to oranges here. I highly doubt a large company, trading on a European stock exchange is going to go tits up to save their insurance company some money.
I know nothing is a sure thing, but the reality of my situation is I have nothing left to lose.
I’m sure your wife and children would be delighted to hear that they’re “nothing” to you, and you’re very likely to lose them if you can’t get a grip on reality and actually move on to a life. Poverty sucks, yeah, but do you want poverty AND no family?
I guess I’m having a hard time working up a lot of sympathy for your plight.
Your injury didn’t seem to harm you all that much as your reported health complaints are kind of vague. I just don’t really believe your multitude of docs don’t have a diagnosis for you. (Also, I wouldn’t recommend massage for your neck if you really have bulging discs.) My best guess would be diagnoses in the areas of anxiety and depression.
You seem to be getting about $30,000 a year for it, though. That’s a pretty good deal.
You seem healthy enough to work to me. I mean, I know folks with much bigger health problems than yours who are able to find meaningful and useful work.
30K not a ton of money to be sure, but it is a normal comfortable income for most people. Your wife’s health and work issues are completely unrelated to your situation, and shouldn’t really play a role in this discussion.
Whatever you health complaints are now, I can pretty much guarantee they will get worse as you age. You would be wise to move along and start making plans for the future. Get a job in whatever field you feel like you would be interested in or would do well in; go to school, plan ahead, take control of things.
I don’t think you employer, or anyone for that matter, is responsible for your loss of life-time income with such vague health complaints. I feel like you may have been treated pretty generously thus far and are in danger of squandering that gift by not taking care of yourself and developing a plan for the future.