Injured Workers of ND Advocates

July 3rd, 2009 | by MIKE | Tags: advocates, blog, chat, Christina Carroll, help, injured worker, law, North Dakota, reoccurring jurisdiction, SAWW, wage los replacement, workers compensation, WSI 

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Don’t know if I have said this before.

The Workers Compensation Review Committee and the legislative hearings was and are there to appeases and dismiss the injured worker.  (appease  1. To bring peace, quiet, or calm to; soothe.2. To satisfy or relieve: 3. To pacify or attempt to pacify (an enemy) by granting concessions, often at the expense of principle.)

Nothing more, nothing less. You saw what happened.  The legislators heard case after case which at the time they themselves said or implied were wrongfully handled or denied because of WSI or the law yet in the eyes of the serious injured worker did nothing. 

Reoccurring Jurisdiction – works for WSI.  The IW (injured worker) is stopped in his/her tracks.  There is no appeal. Case Closed.

Sixty percent of SAWW (state average weekly wage) is still the wage loss replacement for pre-1995 IW. The Legislator did not want to make another “special class”.   IW like Christina Carroll who went from $60,000 to 60 percent of SAWW minus SSD.  See story posted in Injured Workers Story on this site.

Injured workers ability to seek legal council.  This doesn’t change anything until the laws are changed to provide and protect the IW.  But it looks good, makes for a good headlines, cost effective to  shut up the IW.

June 30th, 2009 | by admin | Tags: Injured workers, North Dakota, workers compensation, WSI 

Injured worker rights have been stepped on for the past almost fifteen years; lawmakers have sided with big business, and with WSI to terminate injured workers rights on piece at a time. The start of this was created to limit benefits in order to build up a negative balance of the workers compensation system. I am sure some lawmakers were told “oh once we get WSI in the black we will loosen up the laws again to give injured workers better benefits once we can afford it”. Thus convincing some innocent lawmakers into thinking that if they vote for this now, later on injured workers will be able to have better benefits.

Now lets take this back to the income tax that the federal government set up in where it originally was set up to pay war reparations, as lawmakers were told once the reparations have been paid the tax will be repealed. In 1913 the federal income tax was set up, and is still going today. Once congress learned that they could collect so much money, and spend it like it was easy to get more money off taxpayers, they decided to keep the federal income tax system in tacked. Now to 2009, WSI has found out that they are making cash hand over fist day after day with denial of benefits, and collecting higher premiums. Like Congress WSI figured out to keep the businesses happy they created a credit system like the federal government to keep businesses happy, although WSI calls this premium refunds. How better to keep the natives from getting wrestles by giving them money back or credits, like the IRS does.

Now lawmakers seem to be making up more and more of the big business owners, and who better to give themselves a break? By denying benefits to injured workers premiums for their businesses are able to be kept lower then the national average. Then with WSI not really keeping records on who they deterred from fighting for their benefits, or who they denied benefits to, or who they kicked off the system, is great poor record keeping. With poor record keeping or no records at all they can claim they have no denials of benefits, and have done all they can for injured workers. Plus sending them to a computer “class” to see if they can hit the on button, and email, they now qualify to be a telemarketer. Thus retraining is done in a day, you have now graduated from telemarketing 101, and can now go get one of 7 telemarketing jobs available in North Dakota for that year. Yes I said 7 SEVEN, they will tell you there are over 100 telemarketing jobs in North Dakota, what CorVel and WSI will not tell you is those jobs are between only five to six companies.

You’re now qualified to do job searches for eight hours a day since you can now work four hours a day. Why eight hours a day you say? Well first off you have to search out telemarketing companies; you must do 5 (YES FIVE) job searches a DAY. Not five a week, five a day. You must do 25 job searches a week in order to keep your benefits for two months as you look for work. Now figure out how you will do twenty five job searches a week with five to six companies hiring? How many job searches must you do for unemployment a week? Two to three job searches a week. Yes completely healthy people only do two to three job searches a week while disable people MUST do 25 job searches in that same time period. Now is anyone lost here? Any questions about the shaft injured workers are getting is something you can post a question here about, and we will help you with your confusion.

WSI, Lawmakers, and the AG have all decided to stand together against disabled workers, and discriminate against them. I have no doubt in my mind that this is disability discrimination. Then again WSI knows injured workers can not do five job searches a day in just four hours, so now they have these injured workers doing more then doctors allow, thus they can deny them benefits for forcing them to do more then they should be doing. What a great system, who could have asked for more? Well maybe the business owners who are making millions off of denied benefits, helping WSI deny benefits, and lawmakers, and judges allowing WSI to hire paid mouth pieces for IME’s at $5,550.00 for one single exam. Yes these doctors make $5,550.00 for one exam which means if they do three an hour imagine how many injured workers are denied in one day. However $5,550.00 is much cheaper then paying lifetime benefits to injured workers, so what better a system to run? Hire doctors with massive debt, or those who want to retire yet still make a cash windfall in one day. One eight hour day with three exams an hours comes out to $22,200.00 plus travel expenses from Minnesota. Oh did I forget to mention they get the WSI doctors from MN? Sorry did not mean to leave that out, since these doctors won’t have the repercussions that ND doctors would for word of mouth if they did the exams. Then the ND doctors would lose business by lying. Then you have the doctors here who have to deal with WSI on billing and paperwork who think WSI is one big joke anyway, so why lie for extremely low pay for treating injured workers.

I even asked CorVel if they could give me records showing their success rate of hundreds of injured workers becoming telemarketers since Bill No. 1171 was passed. I was told that they do not keep records on this since they did their job of returning injured workers to the workforce. So then I asked if they kept records on how many were able to get into the workforce within the two month period, or how many still had their jobs once they were hired. Again I was told we do not keep success records by CorVel. So my assumption of this is there is not one single success story to tell about picking a job that has the reputation of snake oil, and not one has kept a job, and many have never been hired. Why you ask….Well many injured workers were not given assistance in finding jobs by CorVel, others could not type to do the job; others had personalities of Ted Kaczynski.

Oh what a great system WSI, Lawmakers, and WSI board members had set up, to manipulate laws in their favor, denying benefits to injured workers, and collecting money from WSI for their businesses, oh and business expenses. Which reminds me of Indivik collecting for 22 WSI board meetings in one year, yet the board only meets three to four times a year. So who did he hold the other nineteen meetings with? Oh that’s right he liked to micro manage that thing the Carver Model states is not a proper board members job to do. But who cares? Right! Since WSI already paid for Indivik’s personal cell phone bills, and paid for more trips to WSI then there were board meetings in one year. Oh that’s right once again he is micro managing, making sure his business buddies received their kick backs, so he maybe could get some kick backs from them too for getting them their money. Hmmmm…….I wonder did anyone ever investigate Indivik’s finances? Maybe some one might want to look into his, along with everyone else tied to WSI over the past twelve years the board was in control.

Have a good night, and weekend everyone. I just wanted to give you a small part of possible corruption that might go on. Then again maybe every little word in this post could be a made up story with no proof ever surfacing about any of it on the NorthDecoder.com.

June 27th, 2009 | by admin | Tags: AG of ND, corruption, Jim Long, USA TODAY, whistleblower, WSI 

If you’re a public official or state employee you had better not even consider being a “whistleblower” in North Dakota. Why is that? Well first off this means you have integrity, and have spotted some possible corruption in North Dakota. Secondly you have no protection in North Dakota for coming forward to possible stop corruption, so you are not protected in your job, and you do not have freedom of speech, and a job. You have to realize also that some politicians will jump in fast to dispute any possible corruption issues such as the story in the USA TODAY article about ND being the most corrupt state. Now who was the first to jump in and try to discredit this story, and basically demand an apology, yep your right our own ND AG Wayne Stenehjem. The brains behind the AG’s office in ND now aren’t you proud?

At WSI in 2007 there were different WSI employees coming forward with the same stories about possible corruption inside WSI, and asked for “whistleblower” protection from the AG. Now the interesting click to this, the AG give the “whistleblowers” legal advice as to what to do, then turns around and sides with WSI on not protecting the jobs of these people. Now is this a conflict of interest here, or just poor judgment of overlooking ethics? Did the AG cross the line here? What was his reason for advising both sides? Should the AG have recluse himself from the whole issue? Well after researching the whole issue after talking with another admins here we both agree that this smells of dead fish, and should be looked into by a federal investigation. Why is that you ask. Because this seems to be just the tip of the iceberg of the AG, and WSI executives relationship. It seems the AG has refused to really side against WSI executives, and really give a punishment to a repeat offender. You remember the open meetings laws that WSI seemed to suddenly forget about every other month as they would hold another non-sanctioned meeting at the East 40. Oh that’s right it was one of those everyone went to dinner at the same place, on the same night, at the same time, when WSI board members just happened to be staying in the motel next to the East 40. Yes, I am so sorry I apologize for even thinking that all these different issues could not just be a coincidence, silly me.

Yet it just so happened that a “whistleblower” was tipped off to an upcoming meeting one night at the East 40 that Jim Long went down their to see for himself if an actual secret meeting was going on, and wow there was one again. Oh well these were just accidents that happened, but they happened over, and over, and over again. The AG at one point sounded as though he was tired of it, and might hand down a punishment to WSI although he did nothing again. He probably wrote on the back of the memo to WSI executives that can’t they be more careful as to not get caught? Maybe hold the meeting at Steven Cates house again, and call it a BBQ. You just can not punish your buddies because then your back scratching stops from them. Sad, just sad that ethics, integrity, honesty, and the oath to uphold justice was just a rumor until the election was over. We have to realize though that every politician has some higher goal in life, and needs his friends to reach that goal thus the “well I will just look the other way” comes into play.

The only ones punished in all of this was all but one “whistleblower”, which did not surprise any of us, since we all predicted that her request was just for show. Yet she still holds her job at WSI too, that fish getting a little more rank here?

Now up to 2009 legislative session, and a bill to protect “whistleblowers” was voted on, and guess what……still no protection for a “whistleblower”. Thank goodness that did not pass with an election coming up in 2010 specially when the AG is up for election too. Maybe even into a new higher office, so he can shoot down more issues, and protect more buddies. Oh just listen to my words I almost thought I was talking about Superman there, and thought I was getting chills down my spine…….only to realize that was knifes stabbing me in the back. Damn just my luck, or no luck.

In the 30s and 40s so many movies were based in that time period with such hero’s and superhero’s that people started to believe there was such a thing. Then came out Orson Wells story about the earth being invaded with aliens. Well you might as well read that story again today, and change the word alien with politician, you would get the same scare as you did back decades ago.

There is very little ethics in North Dakota politics, corruption is not just a rumor, politicians voting for big businesses rather then what their constituents want is happening all the time. North Dakota is I think the last state without a whistleblower protection law, and why? Because if people with integrity, honesty, conscience, and a heart actually had protection corruption would be the one in ND needing protection. Corruption is tied to every hand that voted to turn down the whistleblower protection law, and every vote against the bill should be an indication of who needs to be investigated. Change the laws, or change the politicians. Let those in office have their last day as a public servant, with a personal agenda end their careers. We need to say goodbye to the governor, the AG, Rick Berg and his buddies that voted with him, and the whole senior management at WSI on down to the mailroom clerk.

We need to thank the “whistleblowers” for opening the doors, and showing us that there are people still in this state that would risk their jobs to bring out the truth. Thank you again for showing injured workers that someone did care inside WSI, and that there are some who want to make a difference. The difference I have seen since this is more injured workers standing up and saying what happened to them. So thank you again to those who decided to stand up for what they believe in and showing us that change has to start somewhere.

June 21st, 2009 | by MIKE | Tags: advocates, help, Injured workers, North Dakota, workers compensation, WSI 

 KXMC news story

          Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem and two other counterparts will be participating in a weeklong conference in Rome to discuss how Italian authorities fighting organized crime and other issues.

          In December 2008 USA Today named North Dakota as the most corrupt state in the nation.  AG Wayne Stenehjem responded in a letter to USA Today stating “North Dakota regularly leads the nation with the cleanest and most honest government officials in the country, just as it does with the lowest crime rate and a quality of life that is off-the-charts high.” 

       Is this the same Wayne Stenehjem which employees at WSI went to for advice on whistleblower protection and WSI consulted on how to legally terminate the whistleblowers?

           Is this a misuse of public funds. 

June 18th, 2009 | by admin | Tags: corruption, Hoeven, Injured workers, North Dakota injured workers, Rick Berg, safety grants, Sure and Certain Relief, WSI, WSI director 

I keep looking back at a letter I received from Doug D. Riley in which he received from WSI. Chuck Kocker to be exact as to whom this short letter was written by to summarize Doug’s last six years of dealing with an injury. I have read the letter, put it up, dragged it back out and read it again, over and over again the past few weeks. I just can not get over looking at it and how short and nice sounding it is about the efforts of WSI to help Mr. Riley. Which reading his case files I notice that Kocker had left out a whole bunch of issues, and decisions made about his case when he wrote this summary for Mr. Dorgan. Now you know why it was so short and an impressive letter as to the attempts of WSI doing all they could for Mr. Riley.

I sat down a few nights after receiving the information from Mr. Riley and tried to write up a six year summery of my life to see if I could match Mr. Kocker’s letter length, which I failed to do by nineteen pages. Mr. Kocker wrote a summery that was just over a page and a quarter for six years of Mr. Riley’s injury, and all the issues he faced in those six years. Now if you go get the long version of Doug’s information about his injury timeline you would need a dolly to haul it all into the house. Just one box of his records is over forty pounds alone, and Chuck managed to reduce that to about six paragraphs. That is just amazing to me, I can not wait to see what he writes about other cases, and how well he lies about the issues, or omits different facts that would make a difference in the case had they actually not been reversed by WSI.

I know many of you are just sitting there going why is this editor beating a dead horse so much about this case? Well it is because this case is one that everyone just let fall through the cracks at WSI. Mr. Riley was the “hot potato” that no one would deal with, or actually address his real issues. He was ignored by WSI, rejected by WSI, denied by WSI, and WSI successfully used laws that were not in effect yet when he was injured to work on his being denied for life. Why is that? Because without lying Doug is a big pain in the ass, rude, obnoxious, and has the personality of Ebenezer Scrooge in person, and on the phone. Just the right combination of a personality to become a telemarketer according to WSI. I watched him one time pecking out two words on the computer to do a search on yahoo, and it took him about two to three minutes to do those two words. Yet according to WSI he has the typing skills to be a telemarketer. Imagine this reply from him on the phone while taking an order…”Ok ahole slow the F*** down so I can type your name, maybe I should just get your address first to come kick you’re a** first!!!!!!!!”. Yes, actually that his how he talks, how he types, and how he looks at strangers, or people he does not want to deal with in life. Now imagine being on the other end of that phone call. How long do you think he would hold a job as a telemarketer? I say long enough to get his name out in an interview, any bets?

WSI uses telemarketer way to much and way to easily. This is a prime case where WSI just dropped the ball, stopped helping, and knew deep down that this injured worker deserved full benefits for life, yet worked their hardest to find ways, or reasons to deny Doug this right. The fact is there are only so many times WSI can do this without an incident happening. They deny just the wrong person, and all hell could break loose, and then some innocent person could be a victim to a WSI decision. It has happened all over the place and this is no different. These seriously injured workers can only take so much sometimes, and can be pushed to the brink, then and only then there could be a serious problem. The sad part is it is usually an innocent bystander that is the victim. Why would that be in this case, that is because WSI has a bullet proof building, then again that’s only good as long as you’re behind the glass? Do I condone this type of violence, no not one little bit. As I hope this never happens to anyone, because like I said the innocent are usually the ones to be hurt in this act. Plus certain lawmakers are responsible for some of the actions by WSI, as they refuse to clarify laws to where WSI can not manipulate the laws.

June 17th, 2009 | by admin | Tags: corruption, Hoeven, Injured workers, North Dakota injured workers, Rick Berg, safety grants, Sure and Certain Relief, WSI, WSI director 

Fargo Forum article about GoldMark Properties

June 16th, 2009 | by admin | Tags: Blunt, corruption, Halvorson, Hoeven, Indvik, Injured workers, Klipfel, North Dakota injured workers, North Dakota state auditor, safety grants, Sure and Certain Relief, WSI, WSI director 

 

Just what I was waiting for Mr. Klipfel to write his first article (link does not work due to the BT pulled the article very quickly.) to submit as a letter to the editor at the BT. As we all expected the BT to publish it too, as they can not turn down their buddies at WSI. The one thing they can turn down, and will turn down is too many posts against MR. WSI. The Bismarck Tribune management can only allow so much bashing of their friends before they decide to remove an article from the paper, or hide it way in the back of the internet quickly. (Re-print of article)  This link actually works!

So for your viewing pleasure when they decide to play hide and seek with another article I will just post the letter in its entirety on this site. I might even give Klipfel his own page, with links to his own recording. See if maybe the public can match the picture with the words used to see if they match the articles truth or lies sections.

Like I said in the posting on the article in the BT what Mr. B. Furness the second is putting in print, and what he tells, or……wait…..tries to tell……no wait those words are not right either…..what Mr. K dances around is the real hard questions he is asked. If his phone call was a dance it would have to be compared to a dance done my John Candy. WSI has not changed anything but names of directors, names of certain divisions, and the attitude of how they see injured workers.

I did have to laugh at the “we pushed for” or “We always want to do better” as if he was involved, and who is the we? Does he have mouse in his pocket that we don’t know about fighting for injured workers rights? There has been no effort from WSI, lawmakers, or the Governors office to do anything to change for the better any part of WSI laws to give anyone “sure and certain relief” unless you’re talking about employers getting sure and certain refunds, and gifts.

Klipfel really needs to let the public know that what he writes in a letter and what he tells an injured worker on the phone are two different things. Fortunately we have that proof, and will be posting it in a follow up article on this subject about Klipfel.

My only wish is that I had gone into the highway patrol and could have sold my badge for about $125k a year, plus benefits. Although if by any chance Klipfel if while at work you decide to eat corn nuts or anything like that and chip a tooth please contact Chucky boy Kocker on how to fill out a proper report for a work related injury, he knows all about having WSI pay for his snack breaks.

I guess the thing that really gets me is the injured workers on this website have openly posted their issues with WSI, and do you think any of them have receive a personal call from Mr. Klipfel out of the blue without having to call him first? The answer to that questions is NO. Maybe it is because their information is confidential and he can not get access to it at WSI. Or maybe it is because he has not figured out whitepages.com, then again it could be that he just does not really give a damn and I just waiting for Friday to get paid for doing as little as possible for $125k.

If you have any questions in the future Mr. Klipfel please feels free to contact me at editor@iwofndadvocates.com and I will try to answer your questions to the best of my ability.

-Do you think ethical issues could cloud Klipfel’s decisions?

-In making decisions do you think Klipfel might just do as Hoeven tells him to do?

-Should the lawmakers have been able to say yes or no to Klipfel being hired?

-With WSI running the way it still is, could going private be better?

-When will Blunt be forced to repay his separation pay?

-When will Indvik be forced to repay his illegally paid benefits from WSI?

-Now since their buddy is in charge at WSI, will the HP ever investigate anything at WSI again?

-What ever happened to Rick Berg’s ideas to change WSI?

-In fact does anyone have an answer yet why R. Berg’s company received so many safety grants?

-Why did so many WSI board members pack up and leave in the same year?

-At this time what is the boards function?

-What is Armstrong’s function? (other then to keep his mouth shut!)

-Why is Klipfel even the director when others working at WSI have indicated that Halvorson is making the calls?

-Who rights the responses for Case managers on phone calls with injured workers? Jay Leno, or David Letterman

-Why did the Safety Grant program stop right before the state auditors office went into WSI to do an audit, then start back up within a week or so of Mr. Smith leaving the WSI building?

-Why is the state auditors office denied any access to any of the past Safety Grant info?

 Please keep checking back as we have a few more interesting blog posts coming out soon!!

June 14th, 2009 | by MIKE | Tags:

“Permanent total disability” means disability that is the direct result of a compensable injury that prevents an employee from performing any work and results from any one of the following conditions:

 a. Total and permanent loss of sight of both eyes;

 b. Loss of both legs or loss of both feet at or above the ankle;

 c. Loss of both arms or loss of both hands at or above the wrist;

 d. Loss of any two of the members or faculties in subdivision a, b, or c;

 e. Permanent and complete paralysis of both legs or both arms or of one leg and one arm;

 f. Third-degree burns that cover at least forty percent of the body and require grafting;

 g. A medically documented traumatic brain injury affecting cognitive and mental functioning which renders an employee unable to provide self-care and requires supervision or assistance with a majority of the activities of daily living; or

 h. A compensable injury that results in a permanent partial impairment rating of the whole body of at least twenty-five percent pursuant to section 65-05-12.2.

 If the employee has not reached maximum medical improvement within one hundred four weeks, the employee may receive a permanent partial impairment rating if a rating will assist the organization in assessing the employee’s capabilities.

Entitlement to a rating is solely within the discretion of the organization.

 To North Dakota employees, 

In North Dakota when you are seriously injured just as many of you will die on the job as will be classified as Permanently Total Disabled this year.  You have a 50-50 chance. Good Luck.

 The ND Legislators reduced your coverage by limiting Temporary Total Disability to two years. Then they eliminated the disabled worker’s entitlement to “sure and certain” relief when injured on the job by redefining Permanent Total Disability. The ND Legislators have not provided or protected the workers of North Dakota.

Reread the last paragraph of the law.  What it is saying is if you have not reached maximum medical improvement within 2 years, you will be moved from 66.6 of your average weekly wage to Permanent Partial impairment or 33.3 of your average weekly wage. Good Luck there too.

Mr. Riley did meet “h. A compensable injury that results in a permanent partial impairment rating of the whole body of at least twenty-five percent pursuant to section 65-05-12.2.”  If I remember correctly his rating was in the 60 percent range.  I know it was over 50.

The phrase “performing any work” is where Doug Riley got caught.  As well have many others.  I don’t know how skills of a mechanic with hunt and peck typing transferred to be a telemarketer.

Before WC Review Committee on June 17, 2008 Ms. Veeder was asked success rates of CorVel.  The minutes reflect this answer:

“She said with the data currently collected, it is difficult to track the successes of the vocational rehabilitation services and the reemployment services specialist.

Ms. Veeder said CorVel does have statistics regarding how many injured employees find employment during the course of receiving services, but does not have statistics regarding how many injured employees find jobs following completion of receipt of services from CorVel.”  If your business was vocational rehab should you not have those numbers on the tip of your tongue?

MIKE

June 13th, 2009 | by admin | Tags: ACLU, denied benfits, Doug D. Riley, human rights, Injured workers, lawmakers, North Dakota, WSI 

Injured workers are still receiving nothing more then they did before, well a few dollars maybe although nothing to brag about. The only real change lawmakers did to the process of benefits was change the name of the OIR, not how they operate, or who they are there to help. Then again if you read all the stories about injured workers and the OIR Board it is easy to see who the OIR Board is in favor of, and working for the payroll dept.

The OIR Board as I will still call them since I have my own saying for those letters has once again stepped right up to the plate. Just recently Doug D. Riley sent a letter to Kent Conrad’s office once again, in response Conrad’s office asked Doug to sign a release of information, which Doug did and promptly returned that to Conrad. Now it was time to sit back and wait to see what happen between Conrad, and WSI.

Well luck for WSI there was a member there willing to summarize Mr. Riley’s case for Conrad’s office, as to let Conrad, and his “Staff Assistant” Pamela Mohl to review the case. Doug was injured in 2003 and this just happened in 2009 with Conrad’s office, and can you guess how many pages it took Chucky Kocker to summarize D. Riley’s case? One page and ¼ of another page is all the effort he put into the report for 6 years of an injury. Doug’s spoke sometime back to the interim committee and just the notes from that meeting, and issues on Doug’s case took over seven pages to summarize. Ok now after reading the BS from Conrad’s office in response to Kocker’s summary I once again read BS coming out of the WSI building once again. Kocker should have just poured sugar in an envelope and sent it to Conrad’s office, because that is all he did was sugarcoat the whole story of Doug’s issues.

Now after reading all of this I started to think about the whole thing about letters going back and forth between these offices. First off Pamela Mohl put more effort into stamping her name on the letter then writing it. Secondly she might has just as well put in a letter of disconnection of cable services to Doug, as the letter makes about that much sense about WSI’s decision.

Secondly and most importantly we have Mr. “Ace Ventura” Chuck Cocker who has been at WSI for around thirty five years, and staying around that long you either enjoy your job, or you’re kissing some serious ass. Well I pick the second in this case, especially since Kocker has left out some of the most important issues, and ignored other events that would favor Mr. Riley. Now let us put it this way, no medical records were reviewed about Doug by Conrad’s office, no psychological records were reviewed by Conrad’s office. No neighbors were talked to, no treating doctors were called by Pamela Mohl, and no proof was ever given to detail out what Doug had done to try to comply with WSI.

Ok now for the Barney Fiffe moment of this whole shoot yourself in the foot with handing this to Cocker, and that is this is actually an auto accident with the police only taking one statement as to how the accident happened. Don’t worry about getting a statement, and proof from the other party as you only need to take information from the party that you know better, and have a “working relationship” with already. So let the man who originally helped WSI work on ways to deny Mr. Riley’s case, and then hand him a blank paper and tell him to write up a short version of how Doug’s injury went, and the treatment he received, and why he was denied benefits all by the people who have worked hard to get him denied of any financial benefits. Yes, WSI let them make it look as if they bent over backwards to help Doug, and all he did was deny their help.

Sure seems like a good setup to me, and a quick denial by Conrad for any assistance since WSI has said ……….”oh nothing is wrong we just have a disgruntled injured worker”, that WSI has made sure he hit’s a block wall no matter who Mr. Riley asks for help.

The biggest issue I find in this is that Mr. Riley was injured long before Bill No 1171 which set forth a two year limit on benefits, since this Bill passed in 2005. WSI has used this Bill against Mr. Riley, in which they should have not been able to do so. Now if you ask them they will probably say “No we did not use this bill”, although their actions say otherwise. Mr. Riley should be receiving lifetime benefits with his condition, physical and mental damage he has received from the injury. Even a judge has said that his depression and so on where caused by the injury.

The reality is everyone that Mr. Riley and his attorney have asked for help with this issue take WSI’s word in what ever they claim, and ignore, or do not read the real reports from doctors. Everyone has dropped the ball, and walked away from Mr. Riley which has even caused more damage I believe. There are hazards to doing such a thing to an injured worker who feels they have nothing left to lose, and feel that the system that was suppose to help them has let them down completely. Anyone who has denied, ignored, or rejected this case has made their own decisions, and sooner or later will have to answer to a higher power for their choices.

My opinion on why Doug has been turned down is because he has been fighting WSI publicly for the past four years or so, and being this public about every issue WSI does not want to give in, because then other injured workers will be demanding their cases be overturned. This in return will cost employers from receiving “kickback” money, and “Safety Gifts” which in return they could use to lobby against bills to help injured workers, or even influence the lawmakers vote if they own a business. The system set up to help injured workers has handed more cash back to businesses in a year then they paid in benefits for that year.

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