When I first meet with prospective workers' compensation clients, I always ask if they had short term/long term disability insurance coverage when they got hurt at work. The answer is often "I don't know." I then encourage them to find out. And, I also tell them that if they discover they had short term/long term disability insurance coverage when they were injured on the job, they should file a claim.

First, what is short term/long term disability insurance? It is insurance that will pay partial lost wages if you are injured or become sick and can't work. The duck on TV is advertising this type of insurance. For a worker injured on the job, it can be another source of income to supplement their workers' compensation money benefits.

Short term/long term disability insurance can be critical to an injured worker and his or her family if the workers' compensation insurer refuses to pay workers' compensation money benefits.

If you are hurt at work and apply for short term/long term disability insurance, it's important that you tell that insurer you have a workers' compensation claim. If you do get those benefits, you must tell the workers' compensation insurer.

Policies can differ, and you may not qualify for short term/long term disability benefits, but I think it's important to apply.

If you don't have short term/long term disability insurance, I strongly encourage you to get it as long as you can afford it.