Workers’ Comp: Is The Compensation Fair?
This Blog was brought to you by the J.A. Davis & Associates, LLP – Accident Injury Lawyer principal office in San Antonio
Is the Money Paid by a Workers Compensation Claim Really That Bad?
To us, workers’ comp payouts for serious injuries can be described in one word: appalling.
Victims of a job-related accident whose employer has workers’ comp receive no-better-than 70% of their lost income. There is a $600 weekly cap. So a carpenter who earns $70,000 a year and suffers a serious job-related injury, his workers’ comp coverage pays no more than a measly $600 per week in lost wages as he recovers from your injuries until he returns to work. And even that benefit runs out in 26 weeks unless he files for permanent disability. With such little compensation, hopefully, that carpenter will recover quickly. More Information here
There is another glaring danger to employees who are awarded workers’ comp claims. The amount they receive does not take into account the true value of lost future potential income. If you were to suffer long-term disability and cannot return to work, the most you would ever get from your employer’s workers’ comp disability is that same $600 workers’ comp amount per week for the rest of your life, through you previously earned about $1400 every week. Now you may receive an additional disability one-time lump sum, but that total amount of workers’ comp disability is insignificant when compared to the total amount of your lost future income.
For some, it gets even worse. Let’s say you’re an employee at a warehouse in the evenings while you work your way through graduate school during the day to become a CPA. You suffer a serious spinal injury on the job and are physically unable to work or even continue your education. You still receive only the same 70% of your warehouse salary for the rest of your life. And since healthy CPAs often earn ten times that of a warehouse worker ($10-$12 an hour if you’re lucky) you lose a huge amount of potential income: certainly seven figures or more, from the many years you would have earned that huge accountant salary. This poses disastrous consequences for injured workers and their families. Lost future earnings are where the insurance companies that contribute to the workers’ comp coverage pool make a killing at worker-expense because they are immune to fairly compensating you for lost future earnings.
Is it any wonder why you must have an experienced Texas work injury lawyer who can effectively investigate your case and represent you? If your employer does not have workers’ comp, you must know so that you can recover a fair settlement for your injuries. And regardless of whether or not your employer has workers’ comp or not, you and your attorney must immediately begin the search for every third party who’s liable for the injuries you have suffered at work so that together we can aggressively pursue all legitimate claims against them. Our workplace injury lawyers build strong cases. And we tirelessly fight for your right to win the fairest compensation you deserve.
