South Dakota Accidents

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Search results for “back injury”

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Preexisting Back Conditions and South Dakota Injury Claims

If a truck crash made your back worse, the insurer does not get to erase that injury just because your spine already had wear-and-tear on paper.

ARTICLE by Pete Baumgartner

My neck and shoulder keep locking up after a car backed out in Aberdeen and now their insurer is digging through my Facebook

A plumber new to South Dakota got hit by a car backing into the travel lane from diagonal parking and now the insurer is trying to turn Facebook posts into "proof" he isn't hurt.

ARTICLE by Pete Baumgartner

my leg got crushed by a horse and now they want me to sign before i know if i can work

A Rapid City ranch hand is getting pushed to settle fast after a livestock injury, while the real cost of the injury is still unfolding.

ARTICLE by Wayne Hustead

My coworker said my old back injury kills my Watertown crash claim. True?

South Dakota's injury-claim clock is three years, and that shorter deadline has made insurers even quicker to lean on old MRIs and old chart notes. No - a pre-existing back...

Scared your status will come up after a Brookings crash? The uninsured employer mess is worse

A Brookings delivery driver hit from behind can end up fighting three separate money battles at once: fault for the crash, no workers' comp coverage, and health insurance reimbursement.

ARTICLE by Pete Baumgartner

return-to-work order

Miss this step after a job injury, and the damage can be immediate: wage-loss checks stop, the employer says work was available, and a claim that looked straightforward turns...

A year later, the wrong-way crash near Aberdeen still wrecks your back and that tiny policy won't touch the bills

A military spouse in Aberdeen is stuck dealing with a wrong-way on-ramp crash, ongoing injuries, and a liability policy that is nowhere close to enough.

ARTICLE by Tom Red Cloud

temporary total disability

Not the same as a permanent injury, and not a payout just because you got hurt at work. It means you are temporarily unable to earn your usual wages because a job-related...

I'm about ready to drop this Pierre crash claim because nobody will answer me

A Pierre lawyer gets T-boned on the way to court, the stop sign issue muddies fault, and months of insurer silence starts looking like the real strategy.

ARTICLE by Wayne Hustead

Months of silence from the insurer? That's usually a tactic, not a mystery

A wrong-way crash on a Rapid City off-ramp can wreck your schedule and your finances fast, and insurer silence is often part of the game.

ARTICLE by Tom Red Cloud

scheduled injury

Miss this label, and a work injury claim can be valued the wrong way from the start. A scheduled injury is an injury to a body part that appears on a statutory list - usually a...

DoorDashing in Watertown, I hit a pothole, wrecked a borrowed car, and now they're telling me not to file

A Watertown DoorDash driver using someone else's car gets hurt after a pothole crash, and the ugly part is figuring out the city claim, the car insurance, DoorDash coverage, and whether anyone is lying about workers comp.

ARTICLE by Tom Red Cloud

Almost two years later, they're still trying to dump this Watertown crash on you

A driver crossed the center line to pass, hit you head-on, and now the insurer is using South Dakota fault rules to carve up your claim before time runs out.

ARTICLE by Brenda Schoenfeld

You'll usually see this in a work note from a doctor, an email from HR, or a call from the insurance adjuster saying you've been released to "light duty" with restrictions....

permanent partial disability

A lasting impairment that reduces, but does not eliminate, a person's ability to work or function. "Permanent" means the condition is not expected to fully heal, even after...

occupational disease

A medical condition caused or aggravated by hazards of a particular job or work environment. "Occupational" limits the condition to risks connected to the employment, not...

arising out of employment

You just got a letter that says your injury did not "arise out of employment," so your workers' compensation claim is denied. That phrase means there must be a real connection...

functional capacity evaluation

Miss this for what it is, and you can get boxed into the wrong job restrictions, cut off from benefits, or pushed back to work before your body is ready. A functional capacity...

going and coming rule

An employee usually is not covered by workers' compensation for injuries that happen while traveling to or from the regular workplace, because that commute is generally treated...

In Sioux Falls, one medic heard about a $90,000 crosswalk claim - so why is his offer $7,500?

You can have the walk signal, visible injuries, and still get stonewalled if the insurer says a policy exclusion knocks out coverage.

ARTICLE by Pete Baumgartner