The Freibott Law Firm was recently successful in prosecuting a claim on behalf of one of our clients. Our client alleged that on January 29, 2016, he injured his low back while working for his employer. Our client alleged that he was injured while performing sanitation and pumping work when he slipped and fell on snow falling backwards on to his back. Our client had been employed by the employer for over 30 years and the Industrial Accident Board deemed our client’s testimony to be very reliable and credible. Conversely, the employer produced, as a witness, the president of A1 Sanitation. The president believed that our client had stopped caring about his work and started having problems on the job. Accordingly, the president of A1 Sanitation fired our client months after his injury and testified that he did not believe that our client ever injured himself at work. The Industrial Accident Board found the president’s testimony not to be credible. Moreover, the Industrial Accident Board found that the president actually had reimbursed our client for his treatment with one of his treating doctors just after the fall. The president testified that he paid the bill because the company “often generously pays medical bills for its employees.” What was also interesting about this case was that our client underwent treatment with Dr. Joseph Sebastiani, a chiropractor, who treated our client for nearly six months. The worker’s compensation insurance carrier actually paid Dr. Sebastiani’s bills prior to the hearing. The Industrial Accident Board found that our client was credible; found that his work injury explanation was credible; found Dr. Sebastiani credible; and found that our client was having serious ongoing back problems. The Industrial Accident Board found Dr. Schwartz, the employer’s expert, not credible. It should be noted that our client had no prior complaints of back problems before the work injury. The Industrial Accident Board also ordered the worker’s compensation insurance carrier to pay for all outstanding medical expenses as well as ordering it to pay our firm an attorney’s fee and reimbursement of Dr. Sebastiani’s expert witness fee. (Wilkinson v. A1 Sanitation Company, Hearing No.: 1444103 Date of Decision: November 1, 2016)
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