A lot of workers' compensation cases arise from employers doing dumb things. One of those poor choices is to lie to the insurance company about how many hours you worked. This can happen in cases where employers are deliberately underreporting hours in tax-avoidance schemes, and it is a form of fraud.

Your first question for a workers' compensation lawyer though is probably about what you can do. Take a look at the way a law firm will likely approach such a case.

Examining the Evidence You Have

It's hard for someone to work significantly more hours than an employer reported without leaving a trail. You might have emails and texts from work indicating when you were needed to do certain things. If you have copies of such electronic communications, make sure to lock them and make copies.

Similarly, there can be lots of circumstantial evidence. For example, your bank receipts might show that you were getting coffee or gas on your way to the job at certain hours.

Discovery

Your workers' compensation lawyer will ask for a hearing to consider the question of whether you're being paid the right amount based on your hours. When this happens, the attorneys for both sides will have the right to submit discovery requests and questions to each other. This process is intended to shake out evidence that the two sides may use to present their arguments at the hearing.

With a workers' comp case of this type, a lot of it boils down to what the employer can or can't prove. You should be able to turn up any copies the employer has of papers detailing hours. Note that the court has the right to draw inferences against an employer who can't document what a worker's hours were. Also, the insurance company will take a great interest in what happened because of the possibility that fraud occurred.

The Hearing

A judge will ask both sides to present their arguments for why or why not the hours shown in the initial claim filed by the employer are correct. This is functionally a bench trial so there won't be a jury. Instead, the judge will weigh the two sides' arguments and the available evidence to determine whether the claim out to be modified.

If there are any witnesses, they will be placed under oath. Likewise, the judge will rule on what evidence is admissible. The judge may take a few weeks to a couple of months to deliver a ruling once the hearing is over.

For more information, talk to a workers' compensation lawyer today.