Calculating Compensation
I'm answering the question: How do they calculate my compensation in workers comp.
I'll make this quick. I cover it in other articles too but maybe not this exact question. Almost everything in workers comp is calculated by your average weekly wage. That means how much money you make in an average week, everything is based on that number. So that means if two guys get hurt one makes 10 bucks an hour another guy makes 20 bucks an hour, then you're you're dealing with a situation where the Dudu makes 20 bucks an hour is going to take home about twice as much as the guy who makes 10 bucks an hour.
So what do I say everything is calculated? Well the doctor bills aren't. The amount of the doctor bills, the doctor charges what they whatever they charge, it's always too much money. And then there's a fee schedule in workers comp. The doctors get paid on that fee schedule. They know it and they accept it because they're pretty good compensation rates. But everything else in workers comp, all the money you'll put in your pocket, is based on your average weekly wage.
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Temporary Total Disability
What does that mean? It means TTD, temporary total disability. Fancy word for your off work with a doctor's note because you can't work due to your work-related injuries. If you have a doctor's note, you're technically entitled to get two-thirds of your pay while you're off work with a doctor's note. They don't automatically pay it, they often fight about it or their bureaucratic problems where they cut your benefits off and you need a lawyer to go make them pay you. Very common for that to happen.
Permanent Partial Disability
However, you're entitled to it under the law and that's one of the things a lawyer can do for you is fight for those benefits. At the end of the case, PPD, permanent partial disability. If you have a 10 percent back disability, which would be man as a whole injury, that number relates to or correlates to a certain number of weeks of work and then they use your average weekly wage 60 of your average weekly wage times that number of weeks is what you get in a lump sum. Now it sounds very mathematical like and precise, but it really isn't.
I always go very high on the number of weeks for my clients and then the insurance company goes very low. We meet somewhere in the middle or we negotiate or we go in front of the judge and see what the judge has to say, see what the judge thinks, see what the judge wants to do and so. That's how that works.
Other Compensations You Can Get
The bottom line though is, there's other things you can get in workers comp depending on how seriously you're injured. Like retraining for a new job things of that nature, future surgeries all that. So the medical charges are, whatever the medical charges are, all the compensation that goes into your pocket is based on your average weekly wage.
Is it fair that a guy who makes more money than another guy should get double or some greater amount for the same injury? Not necessarily. It doesn't necessarily mean it's fair but that's the way the system is set up. And if you know it, you at least can understand what's going on and you can arm yourself so that you're protected.
That's how that works. I hope that information helps you. If you or a loved one need a lawyer please give me a call.
