What does an employee do when released to light duty?

In Maryland workers compensation claims, there are times when either your treating doctor or a doctor chosen by the insurance company releases you to return to work light duty . Returning to work on light duty is an excellent way to avoid job loss.This raises several scenarios.

Scenario #1  in Maryland workers compensation claims. The treating doctor releases you to return back to work and the employer has light duty, then the employee will return back to work light duty.

Scenario # 2 in Maryland workers compensation claims : the treating doctor releases you to return back to work on light duty and the employer has no light duty. – Employee remains out of work and gets paid temporary total.

Scenario # 3 in Maryland workers compensation claims : the treating doctor keeps you off work however the insurance company doctor says you can go back to work on light duty. – In that situation, I advise client to try and return to work on light duty. If the employer actually provides light duty that meets your restrictions, most of the time the claimant is able to do the light duty and no problem develops. There are scenarios where the employer says he can meet the light duty restrictions but fails to do so and then at that point the claimant can go off work again and either the insurance company will now pay him because the employer did not provide light duty or he will easily prevail at a hearing. If you fail to go back to work and at least try to do light duty then in that situation the insurance company is not going to pay you and we will have to request a hearing. More likely than not it will take two or three months get a hearing. At that hearing, there is no guarantee that the commission will find in your favor. If you don’t even try to go back to work on light duty the employer can testify that he would have been able to meet your restrictions and you will have no way to rebut that testimony. In order to put the pressure on the insurance company, it is important to at least try to return to work light duty and then if they do not meet the restrictions set by the doctor you have an excuse to go off from work again and enhance your ability to prevail at the hearing on the issue of being paid for lost time.

Scenario #4 in Maryland workers compensation claims: You make the effort to return back to work on light duty, the employer provides light duty, but it turns out the treating doctor was correct, that you could not even perform light duty. As long as you made a legitimate effort to do the light duty and can do a good job explaining why you were unable to do light duty, you should be able to prevail at a hearing