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No Right To Legal Representation Is this Right?

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Nikrott

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Texas
I was the Employer and the injured worker and recently had to attend a Contested Case hearing self represented. Since I am not being paid any income benefits and not allowed to hire an Atty. at my expense either, I had no ability to an Attorney. I feel this to be a direct violation of my Civil Right's. Can this be?
 


cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
According to your post you were both the employer and the injured worker. Which is it?

Who would not allow you to hire an attorney?
 

Nikrott

Junior Member
Self Employed then Became an Injured Worker

cbg said:
According to your post you were both the employer and the injured worker. Which is it?

Who would not allow you to hire an attorney?
I was a CoOwner of the Corporation that my Husband and I owned. I then fell and became the injured worker also, so I was both the Employer and the Injured Worker.

The Texas Workers Compensation Commission states you can only obtain legal representation if your Attorney is paid directly out of the income benefits you are receiving and you are not allowed to hire an Atty. yourself. So since I was not being paid any income benefits I was not allowed to get an Attorney.
 
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cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Depending on what kind of corporation you have, you may not be eligible to be the injured worker if you are one of the owners.
 

Nikrott

Junior Member
We had an S-Corp. We both were covered on the Workers Comp. Ins. as both executive officers but we were also covered to be working out in the field as well. That is not the issue at all in fact we were covered and we paid the premiums for us both and the Ins. Carrier accepted the injury. I do understand where you are coming from on this as there are a lot of Work Comp policies that do not cover the executive officers at all. This is not the case here, we were both covered. The problem here is the inability to obtain legal representation due to not receiving any income benefits. I feel as if my Civil Rights have been violated. The next problem I only found out about yesterday is the medical records I submited to my Work Comp Ombudsman were not in fact fully submitted. He took it upon himself to extract only what he felt relevant. He left out a lot of crucial information for the Hearing Officer to read and consider. I even testified to that very fact to the Hearing Officeer. Now I find what I testified to was not able to be reviewed since the Ombudsman failed to submit what I had submitted. Furthermore if I am able to take this on to District Court I am not allowed to use the information he failed to submit that I in fact did submit.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
And exactly what is it that you want us to tell you? Sorry, but I'm losing track of the thread.

I understand that you think you should be allowed to retain an atttorney. I have no idea if you are correct about the way the law reads in Texas - I'm not in Texas. But assuming that you are, it that's the way the law reads, what is it that you expect us to tell you?

I'm not being sarcastic. I'm not putting you down. I'm honestly confused as to what help you want with this situation.
 

Nikrott

Junior Member
My Original question was are my civil rights violated by the way the Texas Workers Compensation rule is. Texas does have laws that do allow all persons to legal representation and if they cannot afford an attorney they will be given a public defender by the courts. My state Senator, has gotten involved with me on this matter as well due to the mere fact that not just me but every other worker in the system in Texas who gets injured can risk the ability to legal representation if they get injured they very well can lose the ability to have legal representation. Now in the Texas Workers Compensation rules there is an out that gives rise to the state laws over the rules of the Comp Commission. This leads me to feel I in fact do have a right to sue them for violation of my Civil Rights. The argument is why on earth would a criminal have more rights than an injured worker in Texas? I know myself and numerous other injured workers none of us has committed any crime we have only been injured. I have written the American Civil Liberties Union on this and just Sat. received a reply back in my mail asking me for more information.
 

Curt581

Senior Member
Nikrott said:
My Original question was are my civil rights violated by the way the Texas Workers Compensation rule is. Texas does have laws that do allow all persons to legal representation and if they cannot afford an attorney they will be given a public defender by the courts. My state Senator, has gotten involved with me on this matter as well due to the mere fact that not just me but every other worker in the system in Texas who gets injured can risk the ability to legal representation if they get injured they very well can lose the ability to have legal representation. Now in the Texas Workers Compensation rules there is an out that gives rise to the state laws over the rules of the Comp Commission. This leads me to feel I in fact do have a right to sue them for violation of my Civil Rights. The argument is why on earth would a criminal have more rights than an injured worker in Texas? I know myself and numerous other injured workers none of us has committed any crime we have only been injured. I have written the American Civil Liberties Union on this and just Sat. received a reply back in my mail asking me for more information.
There is nothing that says you can't consult with an attorney, he just can't represent, or speak for you, during the proceedings.

What you have is a basic lack of understanding of the legal system.

Public Defenders only represent people in criminal cases, since those accused face potential incarceration by the State.

You do not have fewer rights than an accused criminal... you have the same rights. You're just not being accused of a crime in this case.

Yours is a civil lawsuit, and has little to do with Constitutional Civil Rights issues.
 

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