A Win For The Books in Georgia

 We just received notification of a win for a client down in Georgia over proper Workers Comp classification of their business. And this one is one for the books.

I had made a presentation on behalf of this client down at the Workers Compensation Appeal Board about a month ago. I thought we had a rock-solid case. I advocated to reverse a recent NCCI inspection that had assigned a much more expensive classification to this client. I made a strong case that the newly-assigned classification was wrong and that the Appeal Board should assign the less expensive class that this client had for years and years, before the inspection.

In spite of what I thought was a very persuasive case, we lost. The Appeal Board instead ruled that the much more expensive class should stand.

I was honestly surprised. And we were assisting this client with the further appeal of that decision when this notification arrived today. From the Georgia Department of Insurance.

The Georgia Department of Insurance overruled the Appeal Board and reinstituted the cheaper class I had been advocating for. Without the necessity of our even filing an appeal.

In all my years of doing this kind of work, I have never seen something like this. I have never seen a Department of Insurance overturn a decision by a Workers Comp Appeal Board without our having to even make an appeal of that decision.

I'm delighted by this turn of events, of course. And I'm intensely curious regarding what the heck happened, behind the scenes. I mean, the Department of Insurance had a representative at the hearing, a voting member of this Appeal Board. So someone at the department knew the arguments I had made and had heard the testimony of the business owner.

So now, on to my next case. Cases, actually, as in the plural. We keep getting phone calls and emails just about every day from small and medium-sized businesses, across the country, who need help disputing Workers Compensation insurance classifications and premium audits. Got two this morning, from different parts of the country. So I'm going to be a busy little insurance consultant, it seems, without too much time for resting on my laurels after this unexpected notification. But that's fine by me.