Orbock Ruark & Dillard, PC

Orbock Ruark & Dillard, PC is a Winston-Salem, NC law firm that defends employers in workers' compensation cases throughout the state of North Carolina.  The firm has received an A rating from Martindale-Hubbell, and has been recognized as one of the Best Law Firms by U.S. News & World Report from 2012 through 2015.  Unlike other firms that emphasize many different practice areas, our primary focus is workers' compensation defense.

The firm was formed in 1995 by Maureen T. Orbock (retired), Barbara E. Ruark, and Roger L. Dillard, Jr. (retired) to provide dedicated legal services to North Carolina employers in the area of workers' compensation defense.  Before the creation of the firm, the founding partners already had extensive experience in workers' compensation.  Ms. Orbock and Ms. Ruark were practicing workers' compensation defense with Petree (now Kilpatrick) Stockton in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and Mr. Dillard was adjudicating workers' compensation cases as a Deputy Commissioner with the North Carolina Industrial Commission.

Representing employers and insurance carriers in workers' compensation matters has traditionally been, and remains to this day, the focus of our firm.  Kent C. Ford and Mark A. Leach have since joined as partners in the firm in 2001 and in 2004, respectively.  Each of our attorneys is committed to focusing his or her practice in the area of workers' compensation defense.

Each attorney at Orbock Ruark & Dillard concentrates his or her practice primarily on defending North Carolina workers' compensation claims.  Our location in the North Carolina Piedmont provides easy access to all of the state's major metropolitan areas, as well as smaller venues from the mountains to the coast.   

Our attorneys are prepared to handle work-related injuries throughout all stages of the claim, including the initial investigation and determination of compensability, litigation risk analysis and management of the claim, and counsel involving medical treatment issues.  We frequently appear at the administrative level and deputy commissioner level before the North Carolina Industrial Commission, and we stand ready to appeal litigated matters to the Full Commission, and, as necessary, to the North Carolina Court of Appeals and to the North Carolina Supreme Court.  Our firm is committed to providing quality representation in workers' compensation claims with the goal of closing and managing claims efficiently while minimizing exposure and cost.

Our attorneys have represented a wide range of businesses and industries including, but not limited to, automotive, construction, food processing, furniture, grocery, health care, manufacturing, retail, textiles, and trucking.  We represent employers, insurance carriers, third party administrators, and self-insured entities, such as the following:

AT&T, Broadspire, Bernhardt Furniture, Creative Risk Solutions, Zurich North American, Crum & Forster, The Hartford, Hewitt Coleman, iSurity, Inc., Novant Health, Inc., Protective Insurance, Scott Risk Performance Group, Sedgwick, Technimark, Tyson Foods