Hi I’m Peter Gough, a certified Workers’ Compensation Attorney at QuatriniRafferty and welcome to Legal Tip Tuesday. I’m here today with my friend and colleague, James Horchak. “Hello,” That’s great Jim. Today we wanna talk about Workers’ Compensation benefits and whether you are receiving the correct Workers’ Compensation benefits you should be. So, with that in mind, I’d like to again introduce you to Jim because as I call him “Slash”. As he plays two roles in our firm, and both of which help with the calculation of the average weekly wage. Jimmy, why do I call you slash?

Well I’m not only an attorney but I’m also a CPA. And just like Kordell Stewart, of the old Steelers, you do two roles that help in the calculation of the average weekly wage for our clients, is that correct? Correct, I not only know the law of how the average weekly wages are calculated but I can also look at the numbers and accurately calculate it for clients. Jim, I’m not aware of any other firm in Western Pennsylvania that utilizes both an attorney slash an accountant to see if our clients or any Workers’ Compensation claim is receiving correct Workers’ Compensation benefits. So, are you aware of anybody else who does that? No, I’m not aware of any. Biggest question: of the thousands of calculations that you’ve done, how often does the Workers’ Compensation insurance carrier get it right? Probably if I had to guess, probably a third of the time they get it right. Are they getting it right in favor of the client or are they short changing the clients? Most of the time they are short changing the clients. So, my pitch is, come to us, let us review your Workers’ Compensation benefits and we’ll see if you are being paid correct benefits.

Jimmy, if they’re being underpaid, what can we do to help? Well, first of all if we could get you paystubs from the one year prior to your injury, we could figure out if you’re underpaid at that point. And then we could file a review petition and go to court and get back you’re benefits, and future benefits. Is that right, Jim? That’s correct. Alright. Well, Jim thank you for being with me today, and we’ll see you again soon!