Hope this helps.

Herb Chestnut

The verbal threat to an insurance adjuster of hiring an attorney is often met with resistance and a claim by the adjuster that this will only serve to hurt the injured contractor, but I cannot yet think of a single instance of a Defense Base Act client of ours that has been left worse off for hiring our firm. I should “knock on wood” after saying that because maybe one day that will come. But because of the unique circumstances in these claims with attorneys fees being paid for by the insurers and not the client, the real issue for the client is whether they can get a skilled attorney to handle their case. There are a handfull of skilled DBA plaintiff’s attorneys scattered throughout the United States and thousands of injured contractors. Most do not try to hire an attorney to handle their claim, but the reality is that all them could not. There are not enough attorneys to go around. Therefore, each attorney has to evaluate cases and determine whether the case meets what they need to continue to pay their employees, associate attorneys, rent, utility bills, etc. The nature of DBA claims means that unless operating on a partial charity basis the attorney cannot make a significant fee on injuries to the hands or feet and often injuries to Iraqi nationals who are paid $40-$200 per week for their services. However, our firm has tried to help any claimant in need and has made special sacrifices when it comes to Iraqis injured or killed because of their sacrifeces for the good of the US war effort.

While we cannot warrant that we can represent every person who contacts our firm, I truly feel like everyone who we do represent gains from our involvement in their claim. The choice of whether to take that step falls on the individual themselves.

#1) An IME ordered by the employer. An IME means an Independant Medical Evaluation. It is when the employer/insurer disagrees with something your doctor has stated or ordered and asked that their own doctor examine you. Usually this is done by a doctor of the insurer’s choosing in your home town, but we have seen (especially in Texas) an interest by one of the major insurers to get the contractor to travel to the insurer’s home office area of Dallas, Texas for an examination or to send a Dallas, TX doctor to their Texas location.

#2) Travel by the claimant to see their own doctor. Jana, this appears to be what you are referring to, a contractor leaving their home area to see a doctor. I have to admit that I cannot relate to this. I am not sure that our firm has a single DBA client who is currently being forced or coerced to see an authorized treating doctor well outside their home town or metro area. The irony of an insurer arguing that such regular travel to see a doctor would be appropriate would be that we have met resistance regarding referrals by one doctor to a specialist who was maybe 100 miles away in a major metropolitan area, when the claimant lived in a smaller city. As stated in my orignal post, we have seen the insurer “recommend” doctors to a contractor, but I do not recall a situation where they have tried to force a large range of travel. I am not sure that this should be acceptable under the Defense Base Act and I think that the long period of travel might mke for a basis to request a change of physician from the Department of Labor. As stated in my original post, that is not an easy feat, but is proper in some situations.

As to the issue with an attorney recommending a client travel to see a doctor close to where the attorney resides, I can only imagine that they are attempting to set the client up with a doctor they are familiar with. By virtue of the nature of Defense Base Act practice we have become quite familar with doctors in multiple metropotitan areas including Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Boston, and other areas. Obviously our firm’s greatest connection with physicians is in the Atlanta area, extending to Nashville, TN, Chattanooga, TN, and down to the Savannah, Georgia area.

I cannot recall a situation we advised a client to see a doctor more than an hour from their home, unless they were looking for a second opinion to their local doctor’s approach, and the insurance company also agreed that was a good idea. (Imagine someone who had undergone multiple surgeries and still had no relief or cure).