Sweetin & Bleeke PC
Practice Areas
* General Liability Insurance Defense
* Medical Malpractice
* Worker's Compensation
* Construction Law and Litigation
* Business and Corporate Law
* Corrections Litigation
* Insurance Coverage and Fraud Investigation
* Divorce and Family Law
* Estate and Probate Law
Worker's Compensation
* Claims by Injured Employees: SweetinBleeke represents clients throughout the administrative process including Single Member and Full Board Hearings. As with other litigation, SweetinBleeke can take its clients through the appellate court process as well.
Development of any worker's compensation case requires proper and thorough investigation, conducted based upon the needs and demands of the case. When compensability is at issue, claimant, co-worker and supervisor statements or depositions will be taken to determine, as precisely as possible, the events surrounding the claimed injury. Whether the issues in your case involve compensability, medical causation, a dispute over MMI or PPI, etc., case-tailored discovery will be undertaken, medical records obtained, experts retained and witnesses prepared so as to present a comprehensive, coherent and complete case at hearing.
* Section 15 Compromise Settlement: The Worker’s Compensation Board of Indiana (“Boardâ€) requires employers to be represented by legal counsel, including cases where the parties have agreed to a “ true†full and final settlement via a Section 15 Compromise Settlement (so named because of the Indiana Code section authorizing such settlements, I.C. 22-3-2-15.)
Certain information must be submitted in order to obtain the Board’s approval of such Agreements. Depending upon the nature of the dispute or injury that led to the settlement, medical records including the PPI report, records or reports regarding major treatment such as surgery, and of course, details of the settlement itself, need to be outlined. Once executed by all parties, the Agreement is submitted to the Board where it is reviewed by the Board’s Chairman, Linda Hamilton, who analyzes and approves such settlements.
Typically, the process takes about 14 days from the date the Agreement is submitted to the Board for review to receive approval. To date, SweetinBleeke has a 100% approval rate with the Board. That is, each Section 15 Compromise Settlement drafted by SweetinBleeke and submitted to the Board on behalf of our client has received first-time approval, thus providing efficient, timely closure of the case.
* Provider Fee Disputes: Since 2006 provider fee disputes have become a major area of litigation in the worker's compensation arena in Indiana. Although this section of the Worker’s Compensation Act was enacted over ten years ago, no one had ever taken a case to hearing until the managing partner and attorney Doris Sweetin successfully did so in May of 2006.
Few attorneys around the State of Indiana are involved in this emerging and complicated area of practice. However, SweetinBleeke has three attorneys who litigate these disputes. Doris Sweetin, Carol Dillon, and Jeb Crandall find this area of law particularly interesting, challenging and laden with policy arguments in that many of the disputes involve public payers, such as fire or sheriff departments, counties or townships.
We are committed to continually educating ourselves and our clients. In this particular area of law, our commitment also extends to educating the Worker’s Compensation Board, the opposing party, and the public about how the statute should be interpreted and applied in regard to medical providers, insurance carriers and billing review service companies.
Sweetin & Bleeke PC
8470 Allison Pointe Blvd #420
Indianapolis IN 46250-4365
Tel: 317 567-2222
Fax: 317 567-2220
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