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More Money for Your Work Comp Case

How to Settle Your Workers' Compensation Case for More Dollars and Keep Your Medical Open for Life

There are four basic variables in every workers' compensation claim that dictate the amount of money you will get at the end of the case. Other variables are nowhere near as important as these:

1. What part or parts of your body suffered permanent injury?

2. How many weeks have you already been paid weekly workers' compensation benefits?

3. What is the extent of your disability that you have suffered?

4. What is your Gross Average Weekly Wage as calculated according to the Workers' Compensation Act?

In many workers' compensation cases, the employee does not get the proper evaluation of all body parts affected by the injury or accident they have suffered. If you want to maximize your case you need to be sure to get treatment to all body parts that may have been directly or indirectly affected by your accident, by your injury, or by the medical treatment that you have received in the case. If you have suffered any permanency of injury due directly from the accident, or as a result overworking a body part to save the injured part, or a doctor causes additional body parts to be affected by their treatment, then these body parts should be included in the workers' compensation case. The more body parts documented as disabled or impaired, the more likely it is you will receive a fair and larger settlement. You must have the right doctor who knows how to diagnose and treat all of your affected body parts or you will lose dollars on your case. Always consult an attorney who knows the doctors and the workers' compensation law before you finish treatment so that they can see to it that you have had all body parts appropriately evaluated.

Many insurance companies will want to deduct all weeks of your weekly workers' compensation benefits from your settlement. Do not let them do this without considering the law that says that in certain cases, the first 15 weeks of weekly benefits are not deducted from your work comp settlement or award. You may want to also consider the fact that as of the date of this report, the law is uncertain as to whether any weekly workers' comp checks should be deducted from certain cases. Ask your lawyer if this could apply to your case and make it even more valuable by avoiding any deductions from your case.

Another major case value enhancer is having the right doctors giving you the right ratings from the correct guides for your disability. Often your treating company doctor will give the lowest ratings because they either don't know how to assign a rating to you, or have been trained by the insurance companies to assign the lowest rating to you. Of course, the higher your rating, the more valuable your case is so be sure to get to the right doctor to get a credible and complete evaluation of your true disability rating. If you don't know who to go to or how to go about doing this, get with your lawyer and they will make all of the arrangements and handle the costs of the evaluation.

The last major variable to the value of your workers' compensation claim is the amount of your gross average weekly wage. Very few insurance companies or employers know how to accurately calculate this amount and this calculation will determine a lot about the value of your case. Most insurance companies don't consider the fact that the law says that average weekly overtime can be added to the straight time you were earning and that if you are a full time employee, your straight time is calculated not by the actual hours you worked but what you were supposed to work. In many cases, you can also add your fringe benefits to this calculation and get even a larger calculation of your wage to use in the formula that is used to calculate the value of your claim. If you are not certain as to the calculation of your gross average weekly wage, go to my web site at www.lawyeronthelineblog.com and see the formulas or contact your workers' compensation lawyer for a consultation on the calculation.

Last but not least, you must understand that no case has to be settled on a lump sum, closing out all issues in the case. If you ask for what is called a RUNNING AWARD with rights to future medical left open, then you will have the right to request medical care for your injuries for the life of your injury and the opposing party to your request can be made to pay your attorney's fees for such a request after the award has been filed with the Court. YOU MUST NOT SETTLE YOUR CLAIM FOR A LUMP SUM IF YOU THINK YOU ARE LIKELY TO HAVE FUTURE MEDICAL PROBLEMS WITH YOUR INJURY. Most insurance companies when pushed enough will settle your claim on a running award and pay your settlement to you then and keep your medical open for the life of the injury, but only if you ask for it and don't demonstrate to them that you are desperate to settle your claim. It is almost always best to get a lawyer to accomplish the task of getting a running award and enhancing the value of your claim as described above. Most workers' compensation lawyers will do these consultations for free and will not charge you an attorney fee until they recover your money and will charge a percentage of 25% of that recovery plus expenses.


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