Workers’ Compensation Attorneys For Amazon Flex Drivers

As an Amazon Flex driver, you can be hurt on the job in many different ways. You may be injured because of a vehicle accident. Or, you may sustain injuries while loading or unloading a package, or while bringing it to a doorstep. Any injury you sustain on the job as a flex driver may result in medical bills and the need to take time off work. Most people don’t have enough saved in case of disability. If you have an employment relationship with the company you work for, you may be able to claim workers’ compensation benefits.

If you need guidance regarding initial claims for injured Amazon Flex drivers, you can contact an experienced workers’ compensation attorney. At Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca, we may be able to help you. Receive a free initial consultation by calling 312-724-5846 or sending us an email.

Frequent Injuries Amazon Flex Drivers Sustain

Amazon Flex drivers sustain different types of injuries due to their various duties. Here are some examples of the frequent injuries we see Amazon Flex drivers suffer on the job.

Back & Spinal Cord Injuries

Amazon Flex drivers may sustain many different kinds of injuries to their back or spinal cord as a result of their work. While driving, your body may experience vibrations that run up-and-down and side-to-side. Prolonged sitting as you drive can also lead to back pain. Drivers who lift heavy packages can sustain disc herniation and other spinal cord damage. Further, a car crash can damage spinal discs, ligaments, vertebrae, soft tissues, nerves of the back or permanently injury your spinal cord.

Broken Bones

Amazon Flex drivers are at risk for breaking bones. A package falling out of the back of your vehicle could land on your foot and leave you with a Lisfranc (midfoot) injury. You could be in a car accident and break your collar bone. There are many different types of fractures, including transverse fractures, oblique fractures, spiral fractures, comminuted fractures, green stick fractures, and open fractures. The location and severity of the injury may affect whether you are able to continue driving.

Head Injuries

A head injury to a Flex driver can happen in a motor vehicle accident, slipping and falling on a customer’s sidewalk or a package hitting your head. Head injuries include any type of injury to the brain, scalp or skull. They include hematoma, concussion, hemorrhage, skull fracture, and diffuse axonal injury. These injuries are often very serious and can be life-altering.

Shoulder Injuries

A shoulder injury for an Amazon Flex driver often starts with one ordinary delivery moment that loads the joint the wrong way: yanking a heavy package out of an awkward trunk angle, hoisting a box to chest height while twisted in a driveway, catching a slipping parcel with an outstretched arm, or repeatedly reaching across the seat and up porch steps as fatigue builds.

A shoulder injury can include anything from sprains and tendonitis to impingement, bursitis, labral tears, dislocations, or rotator cuff damage, and it typically shows up as pain with lifting or reaching, weakness, clicking or catching, reduced range of motion, and symptoms that can radiate into the neck or down the arm. As an Amazon Flex driver suffering from shoulder injuries, a shoulder injury can leave you unable to work either temporarily or permanently.

Repetitive Stress Injuries

Yes, Amazon Flex drivers can get a repetitive stress injury (RSI). Repetitive stress injuries may occur when people repeatedly perform the same motion or task. For Flex drivers, ways you can get a repetitive stress injury  is by repeatedly lifting and carrying packages, frequent gripping and scanning, opening and closing doors, climbing in and out of the vehicle, twisting to reach parcels and walking stairs or uneven surfaces.  Some common forms of repetitive stress injuries include carpal tunnel syndrome, rotator cuff tendonitis, bursitis, and tennis elbow.

Initial Claims for Injured Amazon Flex Drivers

If you can establish that you are an Amazon employee rather than an independent contractor, you may be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. In the event of a work injury, you should notify your employer right away. This reduces the risk that your insurer will argue that your injury isn’t work-related. Even if you can’t let Amazon know about your injury immediately because you’re hospitalized, you have 45 days to report the injury to your supervisor or manager. If you don’t report the injury to your employer within the 45 day-window, you could lose your entitlement to benefits. Although you can give verbal notice, it is wise to give written notice so you have a record of what you said and when you provided notification. You should accurately describe what caused you to be injured and the nature of the injuries in your written notification.

In some cases, Amazon Flex drivers sustain cumulative injuries due to repetitive motion. In that case, you should provide written notice as soon as you realize you’ve been harmed and the injury was caused by or connected to your work.

You should also seek medical care as soon as you can after a workplace accident and follow any recommendations provided by your doctor. You’ll need medical documentation in case you need to file a claim with the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. A dedicated work injury lawyer can help you compile all relevant documentation for your claim.

Accident Reports in Illinois

Your employer will need to notify its workers’ compensation insurer to process your claim. The insurer will investigate your claim, including any medical records related to the injury. It will look at any evidence presented in connection with a workplace accident, including any incident reports. Even though workers’ compensation is a no-fault system, you should be accurate about both your injuries and the nature of the accident in an incident report.

Acceptance or Denial of Your Claim

If you are denied benefits, you should be given a written explanation as to why. Workers’ compensation claims are often denied because of a failure to provide notice within 45 days or the employer’s claim that this notice wasn’t provided, disbelief about the medical treatment you claim is necessary, or the alleged role of a preexisting condition.

Application for Adjustment of Claim

When a workers’ compensation claim is denied, an Application for Adjustment of Claim should be filed with the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. The Application should also be served on your employer. A case number and an arbitrator will be assigned to your claim. The Application must be filed within 3 years of the date of your work injury. However, if you were paid some benefits, but then the insurer stopped paying, you have two years from the date of the last compensation payment to file the Application for Adjustment of Claim.

Third Party Claim For Amazon Flex Drivers

If you are an Amazon Flex driver who was injured in a vehicle accident caused by another, you may be able to bring a personal injury lawsuit against the other driver for damages. Under these circumstances, you will generally need to establish the other driver’s negligence by showing:

1. the other driver owed you a duty to use reasonable care
2. the other driver breached the duty to use reasonable care
3. causation, and
4. damages.

Lost Wages for Injured Amazon Flex Drivers

If you lose wages as an Amazon Flex driver because you’re disabled by job-related injuries, you may be able to recover a portion of these lost wages in the form of workers’ compensation benefits.  Lost wage benefits are usually based on your Average Weekly Wage (AWW).

Example: Temporary Total Disability (TTD) benefits are typically:

• 2/3 of your AWW

Common ways your AWW may be calculated include:

• Standard method: Add up what you actually earned in the 52 weeks before the injury, then divide by 52.
• If you missed 5+ calendar days of work during those 52 weeks:
  • Your earnings are divided by the remaining weeks/partial weeks actually worked (after subtracting the lost time).
• If you started working within the 52-week period before the injury:
  • Your earnings are divided by the weeks and partial weeks you actually worked.
• If your work was very short-term or too irregular to calculate fairly:
  • Your AWW may be based on what a similar Amazon Flex driver (same grade) would have earned over those 52 weeks working similar hours.

The workers’ compensation system is a no-fault system designed to make it easier to obtain compensation for injuries sustained on the job; you don’t need to prove your employer was at fault to recover benefits, nor can your employer get your compensation reduced by showing you were partially or fully to blame for your accident. However, in practice, it can be nearly as challenging to navigate the workers’ compensation system as it is to pursue damages in a lawsuit. It may seem difficult to figure out whether you are receiving the full disability benefits you’re owed for lost wages without the help of a lawyer.

Lump Sum Settlements for Amazon Flex Drivers

Lump sum settlements for Amazon Flex drivers may be a strategy to simply get rid of claims or avoid paying more over the long haul. If the amount is insufficient, it will not be in your best interest to accept. Workers’ compensation benefits are typically paid over a period of time. These benefits can include disability pay, reasonable and necessary medical care, vocational rehabilitation and medical mileage. The amount of benefits and the number of installments over which benefits will be paid depends, in part, on the severity of your injuries. For instance, if you suffer a traumatic brain injury in a car accident while delivering for Amazon Flex, such that you can no longer drive or hold down any other type of job, your benefits will be greater than if you break a bone and need a few months to recover. Sometimes insurers offer injured claimants a lump sum settlement, rather than paying them over time as need arises. A lump sum settlement is a single payout.

There are circumstances in which a lump sum is both appropriate and preferable to payments over time. However, there are also situations in which you could be severely disadvantaged by taking a lump sum settlement.

Risks of Lump Sum Settlements for Amazon Flex Drivers

There are many nuanced considerations that go into determining whether a lump sum settlement is in a worker’s best interest. Among the factors to be considered with your attorney are the value of your claim, the strength of your assertion that your injuries are work-related, whether Amazon Flex’s insurer might be able to establish the ABC test, and whether your treating physician’s determination that you’ve reached maximum medical improvement is certain.

In most cases, if you accept a lump sum, you will need to sign a settlement agreement agreeing to waive certain rights. For instance, you’ll probably need to waive your rights to claim any further disability payments even if there’s a chance your condition could worsen. If you are not fully healed at the point at which you sign the lump sum settlement agreement, this waiver of your rights could be disastrous. For instance, if you accepted a lump sum settlement for a work-related skull fracture that was not properly treated or diagnosed, you will not be able to seek further disability pay once the settlement is approved by an arbitrator of the Illinois Industrial Commission. Even if a subsequent physician correctly diagnoses your traumatic brain injury and believes that it will leave you unable to drive due to a permanent cognitive impairment, you will still be barred from seeking compensation.

Medical Benefits for Injured Amazon Flex Drivers

Workers’ compensation eligibility depends on your work classification: employees may qualify for benefits, while independent contractors typically do not—so proving you’re an Amazon employee is key. After a work injury, get medical care right away, follow your doctor’s treatment plan, and make clear the injury is work-related so billing goes to the employer/insurer. You also need to give your employer written notice of the injury as soon as possible (and no later than 45 days), including basic details like when and where it happened, or you could lose benefits. If approved, workers’ comp can cover reasonable and necessary medical treatment, including doctor visits, medication, surgery, and physical therapy.

Utilization Review for Amazon Flex Drivers

What is a utilization review? Your employer or its workers’ compensation insurer may challenge the medical services to which you’re entitled by pursuing a Utilization Review under section 8.7 of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act. A utilization review looks at the necessity, reasonableness, and frequency of your medical treatment. Under Section 8.7, a utilization review is the evaluation of proposed health care services to decide the propriety of the health care services that are medically needed and the quality of health care services given to a patient. Issues that may be determined in a utilization review include evaluation of efficiency, efficacy, and appropriateness of office visits, hospitalizations, and treatment. An independent medical exam (IME) doctor may be able to comment on the same issues, but utilization reviews involve a different process and evaluating entity. They also have different ramifications. Utilization reviews create a rebuttable presumption the insurer isn’t responsible for penalties due to delay. The utilization review is only valid if it is conducted using a system that specifies the utilization of health care services according to standards of care or peer review guidelines recognized at a nation level.

Utilization techniques can include prospective review or getting a second opinion. They can also include peer review, discharge planning, and concurrent review.

Defeat Rebuttable Presumption Associated With Utilization Review

If your employer’s denial of medical services is in line with an approved utilization review program, there may be a rebuttable presumption your employer won’t need to pay additional compensation. This is why it is crucial to retain attorneys in connection with your workers’ compensation claim as an Amazon Flex driver. When Amazon Flex’s insurance provider denies or refuses to authorize and it doesn’t comply with a utilization review program and doesn’t follow other requirements, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission will consider this as evidence in deciding whether Amazon Flex should be responsible for paying under section 19(k).

Section 19(k) specifies that if there is vexatious delay of payment or intentional underpayment of compensation, which are instituted or carried out by someone liable to pay compensation and they are merely frivolous, the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission can award compensation beyond what’s payable under the Act. It can be equal to 50% of what’s payable at the time of the award.

Prospective treatment that could be subject to a utilization review could include any of the following:

• Determining whether a hospital admission is proper.
• Determining whether expensive/invasive treatments such as repeat surgeries or hip or disc replacements are reasonable and necessary.
• Expensive laboratory tests or imaging to diagnose the injury.
• Determining whether it is reasonable and necessary for you to seek physical therapy, chiropractic, or occupational therapy.
• Pain treatment and management.
• Figuring out whether a particular place for medical treatment is proper.

Insurer’s Independent Medical Exam for Amazon Flex Drivers

Even if your claim is accepted by Amazon Flex’s insurer, the extent of your disabilities or whether certain medical care is reasonable and necessary may be disputed. Your claim may be denied outright. Or some benefits may be denied while others are granted. Sometimes, insurers ask injured workers to undergo an independent medical exam (IME). These exams are called independent, but they’re often performed by doctors known to recommend conservative, less-expensive treatment such as a sessions of physical therapy, rather than expensive procedures such as surgery. They may not be fully objective. Some IME doctors have a reputation for siding with insurers and recommending conservative care.

While there are situations in which the course of medical treatment is fairly clear and based on objective evidence like imaging or lab work, there are also situations in which one doctor may recommend a more significant course of care, while another may be more cavalier about the injuries.

An experienced Chicago attorney can advocate for you in connection with an IME report. An insurer can stop paying your benefits if you don’t go to the IME with the doctor selected by the Amazon Flex driver’s insurer.

What Does an IME Doctor Do?

Amazon Flex’s insurer will send your medical records, including any imaging, to the IME doctor beforehand. Typically the doctor will review it even before examining you. You should be aware that you may be under surveillance by its insurer to determine whether you are malingering. Additionally, the doctor and nurse will be looking for signs that what you say about your injuries is untrue or exaggerated. They may even watch you come and go from the exam. It is crucial to be honest and to stay even-tempered through the exam. The IME will include a physical exam.

How Will the IME Report Be Used?

The IME report can be used as evidence by the insurer in a hearing before the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission. Hearings may be necessary when there is a dispute about a worker’s benefits or eligibility for benefits. Your own treating physician may need to provide evidence to counter the IME report. The arbitrator will weigh your doctor’s credibility against the IME doctor’s credibility. In some cases, arbitrators are aware of an IME doctor’s record of siding with insurers and will weigh the evidence accordingly. However, there are also situations that are more ambiguous and it is crucial to have an attorney by your side who is able to properly present your case to the arbitrator so that an IME report that cuts against your claim doesn’t result in your claim be denied or fewer benefits than to what you’re entitled.

Workers’ Compensation Hearings for Amazon Flex Drivers

At a workers’ compensation hearing, you and the insurer will have an opportunity to present your case before an arbitrator. There are multiple different arbitrators that may be assigned to hear your case depending on where in the state your claim arose.

Although the Illinois workers’ compensation system is a no-fault system in which you can obtain benefits even if you are partially or fully to blame for your own injuries, you will still need to show that your injuries are work-related. You will likely need to testify as to the events leading up to your injury and any limitations your doctor has placed upon you due to your injuries. For instance, if you sustained multiple leg fractures and were paralyzed, leaving you permanently unable to drive as the result of an accident, you may need to testify as to what happened and what treatment you’ve been through in connection with your injuries.

Death Benefits For Flex Driver’s Family

Amazon Flex Drivers are routinely in danger of getting injured in an accident. Unfortunately, some motor vehicle accidents result in fatal injuries. In the wake of their losses, family members of a deceased Amazon Flex driver may struggle not only with overwhelming feelings of grief and loss, but also with practical considerations like how to replace the decedent’s income to make mortgage payments or buy groceries or keep clothes on their backs. Our compassionate lawyers will be by a family’s side through the entire process.

Free Consultation For Injured Amazon Flex Drivers

If you are an injured Amazon flex driver or a family member of a driver who lost their life, we want to help you. Our compassionate legal team will walk you through the entire workers’ compensation or death benefit claim process. We keep you informed every step of the way. Get started with a free initial consultation by calling us at 312-724-5846 or sending us an email.