Word from the Front Lines: Injured Worker Organizations Speak Out

Abstract

An injured worker, from her experience in the system, describes the flaws in the Workers' Compensation system. She employs information gathered from injured worker organizations around the country, the Workplace Injury Studies Institute, and the findings from a 1996 study by the RAND Institute for Civil Justice. She looks at fraud in the Comp systems, and the roles of medical providers, attorneys, and insurers. She also describes the climate of suspicion around claimants in the process: how it feels to be an injured worker, and to be followed and videotaped by a hireling of an insurance company, and how she watched a fellow claimant led out of a Comp board proceeding in handcuffs.