06/02/2025

What is a North Carolina Workers’ Comp Law Board Certified Specialist?

Workers' Compensation, Videos,

Transcript

Deuterman Law Group Workers’ Compensation Attorney Tom Lamm.

What Does “Board Certified Specialist” in Workers’ Compensation Really Mean?

So, I was talking to a potential client the other day, and we talked about how we’re board certified specialists and and you know, why that’s a good thing. And she asked me what that actually meant. And so I thought about it. And, you know, we talk about it quite a bit, but I thought about it. You might not actually know what that means either, or what really goes into it.

What the North Carolina Bar Association Requires for Board Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialists

So, in North Carolina, a lawyer can’t call himself or herself an expert or a specialist in something unless the state bar’s actually told them that they can. So, before I was a board certified specialist, even though worker’s comp is all I did, and I thought of myself as an expert, or I thought of myself as specializing in it because that’s all I do, I couldn’t actually say that or hold myself out that way, because the state bar hadn’t said, you know, you’re a you’re a board certified specialist, so the state bar determines what that is and what the qualifications are.

How I Became a Board Certified Workers’ Compensation Specialist Attorney

So, to be a board certified specialist in workers’ compensation, for example, you’ve got to practice almost exclusively, or at least the majority of your practice has to be in workers’ compensation. You have to have been doing it for at least five years. You have to try cases. You have to, you have to take a test. Yeah. You know, you think the bar is going to be it but you have to take another exam and you have to get.

Peer Recognition and Final Workers’ Compensation Certification

And I don’t remember exactly how many it is, but I feel like I had to get ten letters of recommendation from other workers’ compensation attorneys in North Carolina to vouch for me and say that I was as good as I claimed I was. But at the end of all of that, you’re a board certified specialist and you can finally say, hey, I’m a specialist in workers’ compensation, and you should trust that I know what I’m talking about.

Think You Have a Claim? Don’t Wait to Hire an Attorney.

Workers’ compensation law is complex and constantly changing. That’s why it’s important to work with a workers’ compensation attorney at the Deuterman Law Group who is a board-certified specialist in workers’ compensation law. Get your free case review now.