Selecting a PA Workers’ Compensation Attorney

The lawyers with Brilliant & Neiman LLC represent injured workers throughout Southeastern and Central PA, in Bucks, Montgomery, Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Philadelphia and surrounding counties, and are ready to help you with your work injury.

Injured workers need an attorney. The injured worker in PA has rights and responsibilities under the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act, and the best way to be sure you are protected is to have an attorney on your side, advising you every step of the way.

So, then the question becomes, how does an injured worker select an attorney? Look for an attorney on the internet, and the sheer number results can be imposing. And, worse, the most important questions you may have are often unanswered. What should you ask?

The first thing an injured worker may want to know is whether the attorney is familiar with the PA workers’ compensation system. Whether the firm handles multiple types of cases, so they are not really devoted to any particular area of the law. For example, at Brilliant & Neiman LLC, we only handle PA workers’ compensation cases (though we can certainly refer people to excellent attorneys for other matters). By focusing our practice solely on Pennsylvania workers’ compensation cases, we may be more familiar with the system than firms who are not so limited in scope.

An injured worker may also want to know who will be handling their case. For example, will it be the partner who conducts the initial meeting, or will it suddenly be passed along to a junior associate with far less experience? Since Brilliant & Neiman LLC only has two attorneys, both partners, each with over 25 years of experience handling PA workers’ compensation cases, that is not an issue for our clients.

Since 2013, attorneys in Pennsylvania have become eligible to apply to become Certified as a Specialist in the Practice of Workers’ Compensation Law. This requires that the attorney have a certain amount of experience and knowledge to even apply to take the certification exam. The attorney must then pass this rigorous exam. The certification is designed to weed out the attorneys who “dabble” in workers’ comp in PA, so prospective clients can rely on the expertise of his or her attorney. At Brilliant & Neiman LLC, both of our attorneys are Certified as Specialists in the Practice of Workers’ Compensation Law (indeed, both were in the first class of attorneys so certified). Therefore, a client can be assured that, even if there is a conflict and another of the firm’s attorneys attends a hearing or deposition, that attorney has the requisite level of training and experience. A potential client would be wise to make sure that every attorney in a prospective firm be so certified.

A similar concern may be who the client gets to speak with. Some firms run their workers’ compensation departments like assembly lines, with paralegals and secretaries primarily dealing with the clients, while the attorneys handle the litigation. At Brilliant & Neiman LLC, our support staff is never the primary point of contact. Clients talk directly with the attorneys, making the communication, and the handling of the case, better for all involved.

These are just a few things that an injured worker may want to ask about when searching for a workers’ compensation attorney in Pennsylvania. We would encourage any injured worker to call us at (215) 638-7500, or e-mail us, to schedule a free consultation, so you can see if Brilliant & Neiman LLC is the firm for you. There is nothing to lose, and everything to gain.