What does it mean to file a petition in court for a workers’ comp case?
Answer
When you file—or when we file—a petition in Workers’ Compensation Court in Rhode Island on behalf of an injured worker, it can mean, or can be about, any number of things. Basically, every issue that comes up in the course of your workers’ compensation case can be the subject of a petition. What do I mean by that? Well, let’s say your weekly check all of a sudden stops, let’s say for no reason—what do you do? You would file a petition called a Petition to Enforce in the Workers’ Compensation Court and ask for a court order to pay you what they owe you retroactive to when they stopped, and to potentially pay you a penalty on top of that, or to pay your lawyer a fee.
But petitions can take the form of, or be regarding, other issues as well. Pretty much any issue—for example, if you need an MRI or you need a surgery or some form of treatment and the insurance company will not voluntarily approve it or pay for it or they outright deny it—that’s an issue that you need the Workers’ Compensation Court to address. And in Rhode Island, fortunately, we have one of the fastest-working Workers’ Compensation Courts in the country—it’s a fairly quick system—and so you can file a petition called a Petition to Review over whether or not you should be entitled to, and have the insurance company pay for, that form of treatment that they’re denying.
So there are a lot of other issues that can come up in workers’ compensation that cause a petition to be filed on your behalf by your lawyer in the Workers’ Compensation Court—which, fortunately for our firm, is right across the street—and have a court decide it promptly so that you can move on with the treatment you need or get the money that you’re entitled to. These petitions are filed every day over myriad issues in Workers’ Compensation Court no matter what they are. Our workman’s compensation lawyers can guide you through which petition is appropriate for your situation, and you can review our RI workers’ comp attorney to better understand how petitions fit into the broader legal process. For additional clarity, you may also want to explore related topics like how long the court process usually takes or what to expect during a workers’ comp hearing.
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