Bert Randall, President of Franklin & Prokopik, is a trial attorney concentrating in complex matters involving employment, tort liability and business litigation. He regularly represents companies in state and federal courts, and before state and federal administrative agencies.
Jim Hartstein is a third generation insurance professional, with more than 10 years in the industry, he has the knowledge and experience to give his clients honest and straightforward advice in a professional and understanding manner. He knows that insurance can be confusing and frustrating for the consumer.
Jim: I think the other part of this is that I make sure that we include with all of our templates is that employee acknowledgment. Right we want that employee sign off. We want them to understand that before anybody was injured. They agreed to this, they sort of agreed to this.
Bert: Yeah, and that they at least have that opportunity, and one of the questions we get asked all the time is well, “What if that person refuses to sign it?” Well, one thing is a lot easier to get people to sign things when there’s no controversy. So, you know, those handbooks usually people are a little bit more willing to sign them because there’s not an issue, maybe their first day of job or whatever it might be. They’re willing to sign it , where things get started to get a little dicey is maybe you want them to sign and acknowledgment after they’ve gotten an injury. Which can work in terms of if you’re trying to reconvey the return to work policy or have them sign off on them like a light duty offer. When we say light duty whether it’s modified duty, temporary transitional duty, however you want to call it, you know, duck is a duck type thing. So, I’m kind of using those words interchangeably, but they’re gonna be a little bit more resistant, maybe the signing. Whether it’s advice of counsel or in their own concerns, but certainly having that acknowledgment out front. Once you convey the policy, when everybody’s happy, and everybody’s getting along getting that acknowledgment, one question we often times get is, what if a person refuses? As long as you have somebody that can document that, yes, it was given to this person. Person simply refusing you can even note down on the piece of paper provided to employee refuse to sign initial date. You can at least still establish that, yes, that policy was given.
Jim: Right, yeah.
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