Reno Workers Comp Settlement and Rating Help

A Comp Resolution Has Four Moving Parts

People hear one number. There are four, they behave differently, and one of them is usually invisible.

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I would like to say "Thank You Erik Severino and his crew" for helping me and guide me through the process and being very patient with me. Since it's my first time doing this and not knowing the unknown of the processes. The customer services was awesome, very understand and helpful, payment plan was helpful for my situation. Over all, I would recommend his law office.

What Happens in a Rating Appointment

An evaluating physician measures what function you have left and converts it into a whole-person impairment percentage using a standardized guide. Range of motion gets measured. Strength and stability get checked. The diagnoses that count get decided.

What surprises people is how short it can be, and how much judgment sits inside a process that produces an official-looking number. Which body parts get examined, whether a secondary injury is included, and how a measurement is taken all move the percentage, and the percentage moves the award.

If you walk out of a rating exam thinking the doctor never looked at the thing that actually hurts, say so quickly. The rating is the single most reviewable event in the whole claim, and Nevada gives you a route to dispute it.

Who Picks The Rating Doctor In Nevada?

Usually the insurer, and the pick has to be random. Unless you and the insurer agree on someone, the insurer draws the rating physician or chiropractor at random from a list of qualified raters designated by the Administrator of the Nevada Division of Industrial Relations, under NRS 616C.490. You have a right of your own as well: at any time, you can ask the Administrator to make that random selection for you.

The same statute sets the timing. Within 30 days of getting a doctor's report that you may have a permanent disability and are stable and ratable, the insurer has to schedule the rating appointment. Before the exam, the insurer can ask you to list earlier disability evaluations and any prior injury or condition that bears on the rating, on a form the Administrator approves. Fill it out completely and keep a copy.

What the exam covers matters as much as who performs it. Nevada's rating statute generally requires the evaluation to measure loss of motion, sensation and strength when the injury is the kind that can cause those losses. If your work up north is gripping, scanning or lifting all shift, check that the rater tested grip, feeling and strength along with range of motion. If the condition built up over years of the same work, our Reno occupational disease page covers how those claims start.

Ask What Is Being Closed

Not what is being paid. What is being closed. Future medical for the injury is the piece that costs people years later, long after the payment has been spent. If your claim was denied before it got here, start with our Reno denial page instead.

How Does An Appeals Officer Hearing Work In Carson City?

Whether the claim started on a Sparks warehouse floor or in a Reno hotel kitchen, the second rung of a northern dispute sits in the same Carson City building as the first, at the Department of Administration's Appeals Office, 1050 East William Street, Suite 450. Lose at the first hearing, and you have 30 days from the date of the Hearing Officer's decision to appeal to an Appeals Officer. The first appeal counts from the day the insurer mailed its decision, and this one counts from the date on the Hearing Officer's decision itself.

It's a different kind of hearing. Appeals Officer hearings are on the record and digitally recorded, and the Appeals Officer holds an entirely separate hearing of its own. Evidence you gave the Hearing Officer isn't considered unless you submit it again or make a written request to admit it. In a rating dispute, that means the treating doctor's disagreement, a second doctor's opinion and the job description all have to be filed again at Suite 450.

A claim that closed after a rating isn't always finished, either. It can often be reopened when your condition changes or new medical evidence turns up, and Nevada's strict one-year bar on reopening only reaches a narrow group: claims that never met the minimum disability duration and got no permanent partial disability award. Capital-area workers can start with our Carson City workers comp page, since both hearing offices sit in that town.

★★★★★

I have nothing but great things to say about Erik Severino. Not only was he knowledgeable about the law he was compassionate at a time that was very hard for my family. He always responded quickly to any questions or concerns,and kept us informed about our case. Because of him I can sleep at night and I was so happy with my experience.