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So I have an aspect that I bring to workers’ compensation that most lawyers don’t. I was a defense attorney, and while working as a defense attorney I sustained a work-related injury. I hurt my back. I thought I hurt my leg, but it turned out I had radiculopathy down my – from my back leading to my leg, and I sustained a herniated disc in my lower back. I had to undergo two lower back surgeries as a result, and dealing with the system in workers’ compensation I became aware of the frustrations that injured workers go through: getting medical approved, the waiting, waiting, and the waiting, how slow things go, whether it be prescriptions or getting procedures approved, checks being late. So I can empathize with injured workers when they call about these frustrations. And I think as a lawyer sometimes you hear that and you just nod your head, but having lived it – when I’m nodding my head, it’s because I’ve lived it.
Minnesota Workers’ Comp and Social Security Disability attorney, Tom Atkinson, talks from personal experience about being injured on the job and how it has helped him be a lawyer.