The Flint Journal & Genesee County Bar Association's "Ask the Attorney"

MACDONALD, FITZGERALD & MACDONALD, P.C

Q. I can no longer do my job due to a work injury. I asked to be retrained. Instead, the workers' compensation insurer hired a company to "train" me how to write a resume and to make me apply for dead-end minimum wage jobs. Can I get the retraining I really need?

A. Michigan law provides that an injured worker is entitled to vocational rehabilitation that restores a worker to a 'remunerative' occupation. Michigan caselaw states it is not appropriate rehabilitation to force a high wage earner to beg for dead-end low wage jobs. An injured worker can receive up to two years of paid college tuition to be restored to a remunerative or similarly paying occupation. If the insurance company is too cheap to voluntarily provide real retraining, the Workers' Compensation Agency can order the insurance company to provide the retraining you deserve. Call us for assistance.

Atty. Robert J. MacDonald
--November 2007 column