Workers’ Advocate
Little Rock lawyer Andy Caldwell was introduced to the legal field in high school thanks to his best friend’s father, who was an attorney. Caldwell clerked for the man and his partner the summer after graduation, and he credits that early industry exposure for solidifying his career path.
“It was a great learning experience for which I am forever grateful,” Caldwell said. “I loved the idea of being able to help people solve their legal problems, and I knew then that I wanted to be an attorney.”
As a young attorney, Caldwell went to work for a firm that handled workers’ compensation claims and, he said, “fell in love” with handling administrative claims. Now the principal attorney of his own eponymous firm in Little Rock, Caldwell has made workers’ compensation his primary practice area and continues to fight for his clients to receive the benefits they deserve — benefits that can drastically impact injured workers and their families, especially when an insurance company denies legitimate claims.
“Once the insurance company denies the claim, the injured worker can’t work due to their injury, and often they don’t have health insurance, so they can’t get the recommended treatment in order to allow them to return to work,” Caldwell said. “I love the opportunity to help them get the treatment they need so they can go back to work and provide for their families.”
Navigating the workers’ compensation process can be tricky in the best of circumstances, to say nothing of having to correct a wrongfully denied claim while injured and missing work. In Caldwell’s case, securing positive outcomes for his clients not only benefits them and their families but may help the state, as well.
Injured workers, unable to earn their regular income and denied workers’ compensation, often have to seek other benefits at the expense of taxpayers. Caldwell said his work is vital for ensuring the burden of liability falls, rightfully, on insurance companies rather than Arkansans.
“I think there is a misunderstanding that people who file for workers’ compensation benefits are trying to get something for nothing,” he said. “The reality is that they are hardworking Arkansans that are just trying to get the treatment they need in order to go back to work. Workers’ compensation benefits are less than an injured worker’s normal wages. They do not want to be on it any longer than they have to be.”
With the parties involved ranging from injured worker and employer to insurance carrier and medical providers, keen communication and collaboration skills are a must for ensuring the system works as well as possible to get an individual their benefits and, ideally, back to work.
Additionally, as in many other lines of legal work, there is a balance to be struck between fearlessly championing the cause of one’s clients and remembering the attorneys on the other side are simply doing the same for their own.
“You can be a zealous advocate for your client and still maintain professional courtesy with opposing counsel,” Caldwell said. “I believe professional courtesy gets lost sometimes due to the adversarial nature of our profession, but I think it is an essential element of being a good lawyer.”
Caldwell is keeping an eye on developments that might affect his clients’ cases, such as changes proposed to the Arkansas workers’ compensation laws during the most recent legislative session. He said he expects changes to the regulations in the near future and hopes many of the proposed changes will be implemented in order to improve the benefits available to injured workers. Regardless of happenings in the legislative halls, Caldwell’s legal philosophy remains unchanged.
“Every client matters,” he said. “Every client has a unique situation and problem that they need help with. It is my mission to do my very best to advocate on behalf of my client to solve it in the most beneficial way possible for each individual client.”
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