I talk a lot about being honest on this blog. Don’t lie to your employer. Definitely don’t lie to your doctor. If you do, it will kill your case.
I had a great example of this lately. An older worker for a delivery company called me. She hurt her back lifting boxes. A “friend” convinced her that she shouldn’t report it to her boss so she didn’t. When she went to the doctor, she knew that if she told the truth, her insurance wouldn’t cover the bills. So she said she was hurt at home.
Here we are a few months later and she has a major back injury that will end her career. She is paying lots of out of pocket expenses and although she gets disability pay, it’s not very much and will end in a few months.
Had she told the truth, there would be no out of pocket expenses, she’d get 2/3 of her wages, tax free, and since she couldn’t return to work, they’d have to either find her a new job within her restrictions or keep paying her. And that could last for the rest of her life.
I estimate that she probably cost herself around $250,000.00 if not more. To her credit she admitted that she lied and knew that it was wrong. Theoretically she could still try to bring a case, but I don’t know a lawyer that would touch this with a ten foot pole. We’d have to take the case to trial and it would be easy to make her look like a liar.
To be blunt, she screwed herself. If I can give you just one piece of advice, don’t ever do what she did. It will leave you with no options. The only silver lining for this woman is that she has a spouse who works and her home is paid off. Too many others aren’t so lucky.
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