In this enlightening episode of The Legal Odyssey, Haylee Bramlet sits down with BenHelfman, a seasoned workers’ compensation attorney in Redding, California. His journey into the legal world, and ultimately into the bustling realm of Redding’s legal community, is a testament to resilience and the pursuit of a dream. In this interview, Ben shares the fascinating tale of his path to establishing his own practice, from the pivotal moment when he decided to embark on this adventure to the values that continue to drive him, Ben’s insights shed light on the intricate world of workers’ compensation law.
Ben delves into common mistakes employees make when reporting workplace injuries, and making workers’ compensation claims. He emphasizes the critical importance of prompt reporting to avoid complications in the claims process and also clarifies whether hiring an attorney is necessary before filing a workers’ compensation claim.
Tune in to this insightful episode on The Legal Odyssey or dive in below to gain a comprehensive understanding of the role an attorney plays in the workers’ compensation claim process, with Ben offering invaluable advice on when to seek legal representation.
Why did you decide to start your own practice alongside your partners at LTHZ Law?
When I graduated from law school, it was a down market. It was 1989. And so in 1990, my first wife and I had two opportunities presented to me, actually. I interviewed on campus with Cesar Chavez and got an offer. He offered me a job, $18,000 a year and a double wide to live in. Just too good of an opportunity to pass up at the time, or I could move to Lake Arrowhead and live in my stepdad’s 500 square foot uninsulated cabin with my ex-wife and her two kids. We chose Lake Arrowhead. Everything about that idea made sense except for the part about moving to Lake Arrowhead and opening my own law practice, which was my stepdad’s idea. So months later, I applied for a job at the only firm in town, and the attorney said, “Well, Ben, I have enough money to hire you or a secretary, but not both, I’ll buy you a printer.”
This was 1990, the WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS existed with unlimited 800 support. I would call them and ask them how to write a macro that does a cross complaint against a real estate broker, and how to do all of the details involved in it. Years later, I was working in workers’ comp. The firm I was working for advertised heavily, so I had a lot of files. I had about a thousand files and no case management system to manage it all. I went out and bought myself a copy of Microsoft Access 1.0 and a book on how to program. I was able to put together a program that allowed me to better manage my caseload.
Fast forward several years and I had since met my wife in San Bernardino, California. Her law school buddy lived in Redding, CA and worked for another workers’ compensation attorney who was actually one of the WCAB commissioners. My wife’s law school buddy had shared that this woman, Marguerite, that he was working for was talking about eventually retiring and needing a replacement. I got excited and I went to meet Marguerite in Redding, California and she said, “It’s very nice to meet you, but I don’t have a place for you to sit and I’m not retiring yet.” Every conversation between my wife and I from then on until 2004 ended with, “That’s a good idea, but someday we may move to Redding,” “Let’s remodel the house,” “That’s a great idea, but someday we may move to Redding.”
Finally, in 2004 I was driving home and I thought, “I’m going to say to my wife, do you mind if I call your old law firm who didn’t make you a partner?” Just to set the stage, this is February now of 2004 and there were substantial changes in the workers compensation system that were going to occur on April 19th 2004 under Governor Schwarzenegger. There was about to be a complete revamping of the system. I’m a Buddhist, so I believe in being in the right place at the right time. I was deciding to zig when everyone else zagged, I was taking cases in February, March and April of 2004 because it felt like the right place, and the right time.. and opening my own practice because
My wife was okay with me interviewing with her old law firm so in February of 2004 I interviewed in Redding, California. Finally, it felt like the conversations that ended with, “but someday we may move to Redding,” were happening. I landed a meeting with Skip Tescher, in this room, at this desk, I sat on the other side and he said, “Ben, this is not the resume of someone who works for someone else, which I was doing at the time.” Remember, this resume displayed my knowledge of computer programming that simply advanced the way most attorneys were handling their caseload at the time. He said, “This is the resume of someone who opens his own law practice and there’s a vacuum in Redding.” He said, “Uh, I think you can do this.”
I jump in my car. I drove out 45 minutes into the country where my wife was visiting with her grandmother who was in her nineties. I come bounding into the living room and as I’m driving there, I’m thinking, “Wow, Skip thinks I can start my own practice,” and I’m practicing Buddhism as I go. I’m chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, which is what I chant. I sounded like Thomas the Tank Engine who couldn’t for the first three quarters of the ride, but the last 14 miles going down the road where I needed to meet my wife, I’m sitting forward in my chair and I’m grabbing the steering wheel. I’m chanting with the determination to draw water from parched earth and I’m thinking, what can I tell my wife I’ll give up if she’ll let me open my own practice? I came bounding the living room and I said, “Skip thinks I can open my own practice and I’ll sell the BMW and the country club membership if you let me join.” She hated the country club that I joined because she hated the food. She said, “sold!” Next thing you know, I went down to San Bernardino and I got myself an AT&T phone number, forwarded it to my cell phone.
My phone started ringing because word got out to all the other local attorneys that another experienced workers comp attorney was coming to Redding, California. I started getting calls and I started signing them up and I had my software to help me organize everything. There I was, chasing a dream, and opening my own practice in 2004 in the midst of the uncertainty.
What are the values that have driven you with your own practice? What values drive you and your staff now day to day?
I would say being available to my clients, especially when the pandemic hit, I realized how important email would become. It’s become much more important. It was already important, but email has become even more important since the pandemic. We also value the ability to talk to people and respond to their concerns relatively quickly.
Throughout my whole career, one of the things I have always attempted to do is observe what other people are doing right and then I copy them. So every attorney I’ve worked for, everyone who I’ve respected that I’ve worked for, I’ve made them my mentor whether they knew it or not. One of the things that I learned from a lot of the attorneys I worked for is the importance of ‘the early bird gets the worm,’ so every morning, I return my client’s phone calls between seven and eight in the morning. And that was something I saw Skip do for years and it allowed him to return those phone calls often within one day.
A lot of being an attorney, I would analogize it to a duck on the water. Our clients don’t necessarily see how furiously our legs are operating underneath the water. They just see us on top of the water. The emails we send them, the letters we send them, and what we say to them over the phone, that’s how they can taste the quality of our work. That aspect of the relationship however requires lots of time alone in my office. Remember we are also reading medical reports, thinking about what the other side is going to do, etc.
I spend a lot of my time actually doing legal research, but I also spent a lot of my time teaching the law. I’m the president of the local chapter of the California Applicants’ Attorneys Association, which is the association of attorneys that represent injured workers in California. I will give, as often as once a month, a presentation to other attorneys to educate on workers comp law. I also speak regularly at the statewide group of attorneys. I am speaking in January, for instance, on a panel dealing with artificial intelligence, email overload, technological tools, and things like that.
What are the most common mistakes that you see employees make when it comes to reporting workplace injuries?
Delaying, not reporting it. It’s really important to report the injury the day it happens or as soon after as possible. If I arrive at work healthy, and I’ve injured myself while there, where else could it have occurred? I avoid a lot of headache, if I’m the injured worker, andI filed the claim the same day, or as soon as possible.
One of the reasons I see insurance companies deny a claim or delay and investigate the claim is because someone waits three months to report the injury. It’s not impossible to proceed with that claim, but if I have a choice, I’d rather report at the time of injury.
Do you have to hire an attorney prior to filing a workers compensation claim?
No. So much of the workers’ compensation system is designed to be able to be done without an attorney. It’s not nearly as complex as, say, handling my own bankruptcy or handling my own divorce or suing my neighbor for where their fence is. All of those types of litigation are occurring in superior court, and the rules and the navigation of that system is not necessarily designed for the layperson.
The workers compensation process, on the other hand, is designed to be somewhat navigable without an attorney. That being said, this can be the cause of someone not searching for assistance from an attorney with the claim.
An interesting side note, it’s not workman’s compensation, it’s workers’ compensation.
What role does an attorney play in the workers’ compensation claim process? How can an attorney help someone in navigating through the settlement of their claim?
One of the things that I say to someone during an initial interview is, I want to give you the pros and cons of hiring an attorney. One of the questions I ask is, “Well, is anything being denied, are you getting your benefits?” There are four basic benefits in a worker’s comp case.
- There’s money paid temporarily while recovering from the injury
- A different kind of money that’s paid for either a short period of time or even permanently after that due to the injury
- Medical care compensation
- Sometimes, there is compensation for getting back to work if you don’t go back to work immediately.
When I’m in that initial conversation, if they (the potential client) is getting their benefits and it is not being denied, the workers comp insurance company is not denying authorization for the things that the doctors are recommending, then I say, “You may not need to hire me right now.”
There’s a difference in the rules that the unrepresented injured worker will follow versus that I have to follow when obtaining what’s called a qualified medical examiner. This is a critical juncture in the case where either the injured worker or more often the insurance adjuster has objected to the opinion of the treating physician. If the injured worker does not have an attorney when that letter comes in, they have 10 days from the date at the top of the letter, plus five to 10 days for mail, to choose the specialty of the doctor that they want to see. Of course, there can be considerations where they would not necessarily pick the same specialty every time. It might be that it’s a back injury, but they decide not to pick orthopedic surgery and they pick something else that would also make sense like pain medicine, physical medicine, rehabilitation, chiropractic. They get to choose the specialty if they act within that 10-day window. Once the form is filled out and returned, in the next few days a list of the names, addresses, and a short biopic on three doctors in that specialty is sent to the injured worker. They get to pick the doctor if they act within the first 10 days. On the other hand, if I’m the attorney, then I get that list of three doctors. I am required to cross out one of the names and the insurance adjuster or defense attorney on the other side has to cross out one of the names and the third person, the one left over, becomes the doctor.
It’s important to consult with an attorney before you go through that process, even for a free consultation. I give a lot of free consultations where I’ll just advise them about how to do that process and what the pitfalls are, even if they’re not hiring me. This one piece can often make the difference between a doctor who would be evaluating them and giving them an accurate evaluation rather than an overly strict evaluation. One that is technically correct, but they’re not exercising any discretion and doctors have discretion.
If you had to give one major piece of advice for people that do find themselves seriously injured at work in Redding, California, what would that piece of advice be?
Read everything you receive in the mail. I’ve had potential clients come to me and they’ve allowed deadlines to pass by not just reading what the letters they receive say. If you’re at all confused you can contact an attorney. I recommend looking for someone who’s a certified specialist in workers’ compensation. I’m a certified specialist. That means I passed a second bar exam specifically on workers’ comp. and then I recertify every number of years that they require me to. A certified specialist and or someone who does workers’ comp regularly is the type of person you would be looking for.
It is also important to know that every workers’ compensation appeals board also has a person that works for the board called an information and assistance officer. This is a person familiar with workers comp, often not an attorney, maybe a former insurance adjuster, who is there to provide information and assistance to injured workers, such as how to fill out a form, what the mileage rates are to go to and from their doctor, any kinds of questions like that. Sometimes that’s all a person needs. I will sometimes refer people to the information and assistance officer if I’m not going to be taking their case and I want them to have the ability to get unstuck if they get stuck in the system.
In the world of workers’ compensation, Ben’s serves as a critical guide for those in need. His commitment to his clients and his dedication to the pursuit of justice have not only shaped his own practice but have also left a lasting impact on the Redding, California legal landscape. Remember, in the face of uncertainty, legal assistance is just a call away, and with the right attorney by your side, you can confidently navigate the complexities of workers’ compensation. Search for the workers’ compensation attorney to support your claim at LawyerGuide.Com.