Your Claim
Your Claim Is Accepted. Now Protect It.
An accepted claim isn’t a protected claim.
The insurer accepted your claim, assigned you a doctor, and started paying benefits. That is exactly when most cases go wrong. The doctors are chosen by the insurance company, the adjuster’s job is to close your file, and every decision between now and settlement affects what your case may be worth.
Free consultation. No fee unless we recover compensation. Every case is different; results depend on the facts.
100% Free Consultation
Tell us what’s happening with your claim
A few details are enough to start. Attorney James M. Hoffmann reviews every inquiry.
Where are you in your claim?
Twelve situations we handle every week for injured Missouri workers. Start with the one you are facing right now.
Released in Pain & MMI
The doctor says you have reached MMI, but you are still in pain. What that release really means for your benefits and your settlement.
Company Doctors & Misdiagnosis
The clinic works for the insurer. When and how you may be able to see a different doctor in Missouri.
The IME
What to expect from an independent medical examination, how to prepare, and what not to say.
What Your Case Is Worth
Wage rate, disability rating, restrictions, and future medical care all move the number.
Permanent Restrictions & Settlement
Permanent restrictions often change what a fair settlement looks like. Understand yours before you sign.
Future Medical & In-Home Care
Future treatment, home modification, transportation, and in-home nursing must be proven before you settle.
Insurance Surveillance
Investigators may be watching. What they can and cannot do, and how it affects your claim.
Return to Work & Light Duty
Your rights when your employer will not take you back, or light duty is making your injury worse.
Depositions & Hearings
The questions you will be asked at a workers’ comp deposition, and how we prepare you for them.
A Second Opinion Before You Settle
A second set of eyes on your case before you sign. Once you settle, there is usually no going back.
Denied Claims
Deadlines, appeal steps, and the evidence that can turn a denial around.
Second Injury Fund
If a prior injury or condition made this one worse, Missouri’s Second Injury Fund may owe you additional benefits.
The Accepted-Claim Trap
How accepted claims quietly lose value
Nobody from the insurance company will tell you your claim is in trouble. The checks arrive, the clinic schedules appointments, and everything feels handled. But the doctors writing your medical records are chosen and paid by the insurer, and those records, not your pain, decide what your case may be worth.
Conservative diagnoses, early releases, and missing work restrictions all shrink a settlement long before an offer is made. By the time many injured workers realize what happened, they have already been released at MMI with no future medical care on paper and no plan for what comes next.
That is why we prepare every case as if it is going to trial. Roughly 1 in 4 recent workers’ compensation trials at the St. Louis Division of Workers’ Compensation, and more than $700,000 invested in expert witnesses in 2025. Insurers know which firms will actually try a case, and it changes how they negotiate.
Practical Steps
Five ways to protect an accepted claim
- Keep your own dated record of pain, restrictions, and what each doctor tells you
- Do not give a recorded statement or sign broad medical authorizations without advice
- Report every symptom at every appointment; symptoms left unsaid disappear from the record
- Ask for copies of your medical records and work status notes after each visit
- Talk to an attorney before an IME, a release at MMI, or any settlement conversation
None of this requires a lawsuit or a fight with your employer. It is simply how you keep the record honest while the insurer builds its file. If any of these steps has already gone wrong, that is worth a conversation now, not at settlement time.
Before You Settle
Make sure the number covers all of it
- Future medical care, including revision surgeries, injections, and pain management
- Home modification when stairs, bathrooms, or doorways no longer work for you
- Transportation and vehicle modification
- In-home nursing and attendant care
- Permanent restrictions and lost earning capacity
Start with what your case may be worth, read about future medical care, or get a second opinion before you settle.
About Attorney Hoffmann
Talk directly with Attorney James M. Hoffmann
For more than 30 years, James M. Hoffmann has represented injured Missouri workers, and only injured Missouri workers.
When you call, you talk with the attorney handling your case, not a call center and not a junior associate. In an accepted claim, where adjusters and nurse case managers are working your file every week, that direct access is the difference between reacting late and protecting your case early.
Get answers about your claim today
If something about your claim does not feel right, it probably is not. A conversation costs nothing, and it may change what your case is worth. Free consultation. No fee unless we recover compensation.
Every case is different; results depend on the facts.