Must I fill out wage form from an Atty?

jscheidter · November 2003

I received a DWC-1a Wage Statement form from an attorney of an employee who filed a workers' comp. claim. He's demanding that I provide the information by a certain date. Isn't this form usually submitted to a carrier? Do I have to give him the info?

Don D · November 2003

More than likely the carrier does not have the information needed on the form and would have to call you to get it. It is my belief that since an attorney is involved, the attorney working for your carrier will want the form sent to him so he will be in the loop. In the long run, you will be the one providing the information, but I would not deal directly with the employee's attorney. Tell him to contact your carrier. That's part of what you pay the carrier for and it should all pass through the attorney representing your company. Next they will want job description, attendance history, transfer and training history, etc.

Nat · November 2003

I rarely fill out anything from an attorney about an employee except name, position and possibly hire date for any reason. I think that some attorney's think if they ask for it you will give it just because it is coming from an attorney. I agree with Don. Let the WC attorney deal with it.

Balloonman · November 2003

This is information you will ultimately have to provide to your insurance carrier and they will or the judge will order you to turn in over.
WC payments are based on the past average weekly wage. This is where people that have poor atttendance end up screwing themselves! x}>
I would provided it, because if you don't they WC judge will make you do it. You could require a release from the employee, but I bet there was one included with the request.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

Don D · November 2003

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-20-03 AT 08:59AM (CST)[/font][br][br]Balloonman, lest you lead someone astray, I feel compelled to restate my opinion. An HR Manager should never deal directly with the attorney of an adversarial employee, even in WC situations. The attorney retained by your comp carrier to handle this must absolutely guide this sort of thing if you expect adequate representation and cost containment. Once you provide some document or figure to the ee's attorney, the requests continue to come and soon you'll realize you should never have provided it in the first place. It matters not that you will later have to provide it. There are simply right ways to proceed with such things. Imagine getting this call from your comp carrier's retained attorney, "Man, I wish I had known you were going to provide that wage record and training record and those comments about the claimant's attendance to the opposing attorney. This puts our defense in an unusual position. Next time, don't provide anything. It all must come through us."

Must I fill out wage form from an Atty?

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