How to Fight Back When Insurers Say You Can “Work Somewhere Else” After a Career-Ending Injury

When a serious injury ends your ability to return to your old job, insurers may argue that you can work somewhere else. This sounds reasonable until you look closely at the jobs they propose. Too often, the roles are unsafe, outside your medical limits, part-time, or low-paid. In North Carolina workers’ compensation claims, you do not have to accept unsuitable work. You can challenge these tactics and protect your benefits.

Here, our Charlotte workers’ compensation attorneys at Ramsay Law Firm, P.A. explain.

What Insurers Mean By “Somewhere Else”

Insurers often rely on medical notes, Functional Capacity Evaluations, and labor market surveys to claim you can perform other work. They may highlight any task you can still do and treat it as proof that a job exists for you. Some employers even create temporary “light duty” positions that vanish as soon as the claim closes. Understanding these strategies helps you respond with evidence, not emotion.

What Counts as Suitable Employment in North Carolina

Suitable employment is more than any job you can physically tolerate. It should fit your permanent restrictions, training, education, and experience, and it should be reasonably attainable in your area. Pay matters too. A job that slashes your earnings due to your limitations can still represent a compensable disability. Your claim is more substantial when your records explain why the proposed job does not match your real-world limitations.

Common Tactics Used to Push You into Bad Jobs

Insurers use predictable moves to reduce or stop checks. Each has a focused response that can level the field.

• Make-Work Positions: Temporary roles with no genuine duties. Ask for a written description, training, and duration, then compare to your restrictions.
• Labor Market Surveys: Listings pulled from the internet with no confirmation of hiring or accommodations. Demand employer contacts, follow up directly, and document rejections.
• Unclear Restrictions: A single sentence like “light duty” gets stretched. Seek detailed limits for lifting, standing, overhead reach, and repetition.
• Premature “Maximum Medical Improvement”: Declaring you as stable to push you back to work. Request updated treatment, therapy, or a second opinion if symptoms persist.

Legal Ways to Push Back

You have tools to challenge improper placements and protect ongoing benefits. Start with your medical team. Ask your provider to issue specific, written restrictions and to explain the clinical basis for each limit. If the insurer relies on its examiner, seek an independent second opinion to clarify your capacity. When a vocational counselor is assigned, insist on a written plan, meeting notes, and documented job leads that honor your restrictions.

If checks are cut off through a Form 24, you may respond with evidence and request a hearing. If benefits stopped earlier, a Form 23 may be appropriate to reinstate them. A Form 33 hearing request puts the dispute before the North Carolina Industrial Commission, where medical detail and credible testimony carry the most weight. Mediation can also resolve placement disputes when you present a clear record of failed, unsuitable job leads.

Protect Your Benefits When You Decline a Job

Never refuse a proposed job in silence. Put your reasons in writing, attach your restrictions, and ask the employer to identify accommodations. Keep copies of all applications, interviews, and emails. Track pain levels, missed therapy due to work demands, and any tasks that conflict with your limits. This paper trail shows good faith and preserves your credibility under North Carolina’s strict contributory negligence environment.

Build The Record That Wins

Strong cases are built with specifics. Collect detailed work notes from your doctor, therapy progress summaries, objective testing for strength and range of motion, and your job search log. Together, these documents prove why “somewhere else” is not a safe or suitable solution in your situation.

If an insurer is pressuring you to accept an inappropriate job, Ramsay Law Firm, P.A., can help you challenge the placement, protect your benefits, and pursue the outcome you deserve. Contact our Mecklenburg County workers’ compensation attorneys at (704) 376-1616 or online for a free consultation.

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