An Update in the Time of COVID
Just some information/perspective for our personal injury and workers’ compensation lawyer friends:
In April, Warnken, LLC opened 36 workers’ compensation and personal injury matters. In the three months prior to April, the first quarter of this year, Warnken, LLC had opened 145 files, or a little more than 48 per month. Therefore, Warnken, LLC experienced an approximately 25.5% reduction in new comp and PI cases. Anecdotally, we have heard similar or steeper reductions from peers in our industry.
For those injured workers who do not have a lawyer at the time of filing their claim (about half of all claims), hiring a lawyer for the workers’ comp case generally lags by more than a month. This is opposed to a personal injury or car accident case, wherein lawyers are typically brought in to handle the case within a day or two of the injury. Therefore, we anticipate further slowdowns in our workers’ compensation case volume. We anticipate that car accidents cases will continue to remain decreased until society gets moving again. This is somewhat obvious, of course, with a fraction of vehicles on the road.
Workers’ compensation cases are likely to stay decreased for some time. First, unemployment will stay elevated for a period of, at least, months. Less workers means less injuries at work. Slightly less obvious is that workers who feel less secure about their job are less likely to file a claim or pursue the workers’ compensation benefits they are legally entitled to. The latter is the real killer, as unaddressed injuries are more likely to produce long-term hardship. This hardship comes in the form of pain and suffering, decreased productivity, and greater reliance on government benefits.
Warnken, LLC continues to handle COVID-19 cases for public safety, first responders, and frontline health care workers entirely pro bono. We charge no fee whatsoever, as our small way of helping this society in turmoil. We have gotten less of these cases than we anticipated. This is actually a great thing, as it generally means that employers are taking care of their sick workers, giving the necessary time off, and paying the benefits these folks deserve. (There are, of course, exceptions.) [UPDATE in 2021: we are no longer handling covid workers’ compensation cases]
Warnken, LLC remains committed to serving injured workers and their families and victims of negligence resulting in personal injuries and their families. It’s trite to say, “We’re all in this together.” But everyone will get through this, a day at a time. We remain committed to our clients, their families, and our dedicated team, working from their houses.
We continue to pray for those we’ve lost and those who are sick. We pray for their families. Each loss, each sickness, devastates a family.
