Workers’ Compensation is a no-fault system which pays benefits in the form of lost wages to individuals who are injured while working. However, workers’ compensation does not allow individuals to recover for pain and suffering in connection with their work-related injury. In certain circumstances when a third-party is involved, additional recovery may be permitted, thus, it is always important to inform your workers’ compensation attorney of all the details surrounding your occupational trauma.
Workers’ compensation provides life-time medical care to those injured on the job, as well as reimbursement for mileage back and forth to doctor’s appointments. A claim for workers’ compensation must be filed within two years from the date of injury. It is imperative that injured workers who are unable to return to work maintain appointments with their doctors every thirty to forty-five days to confirm they are out of work due to the work-related injury.
Workers’ compensation payments are based on a percentage of a person’s gross average weekly wage (AWW), combined with the degree of disability rating a medical doctor provides in connection with a person’s condition resulting from the work-related accident.
Depending on the type of injury suffered, an injured worker may be entitled to a sum of money for the loss of use of a particular body site, referred to as a schedule loss of use. With extremity type injuries (hand, elbow, shoulder, knee, ankle, etc.) an individual should make an appointment with his/her doctor either one year after the injury, or one year after surgery associated with the injury, and be evaluated for measurement of a percentage loss of use. With an injury involving the spine, an individual is not entitled to a schedule loss of use. Rather, that person may be entitled to a permanent, partial disability classification.
Reduced earnings are available to individuals who return to work after an injury, but are making less money than what they were making prior to the occupational trauma. An individual is entitled to two-thirds of the difference in pay if his/her doctor confirms that the individual does, indeed, have medical restrictions and limitations associated with the work injury and must perform a lighter duty job, or work for less hours per week as a result of the work injury.
