Workers’ Comp Permanent Disability: How Insurers Manipulate Your Rating

Video Transcript

Attorney Christian Boesl: We are often asked by those seeking legal help, “What is permanent disability in a workers’ compensation case? How is it calculated?” If you don’t have an attorney with 20-plus years of legal experience in workers’ comp, you may never learn that answer.

Attorney Kelly Morrow: This is a complicated question, and there are many factors that go into assessing someone’s final disability in their workers’ compensation case. The insurance doctors who are hired by the big insurance companies will provide you with an impairment at the end of your workers’ compensation case, when they’ve determined when you’ve reached MMI, or what we call maximum medical improvement. Often, the insurance carrier will try to manipulate a lower rating by picking a doctor who’s purposefully going to give you a lower rating to help that insurance carrier save money that they need to pay you. Having an attorney that works in workers’ compensation and knows the doctors can help you avoid getting low ratings, which translates into lower awards for your injuries.

Attorney Christian Boesl: We use doctors and medical journals that know how to properly document your permanent limitations, restrictions, and pain levels to get you a fair impairment rating for an award. We also know how to identify when you might not be able to go back to work at all following your injury, and what it takes to prove you are then permanently and totally disabled under the law. This allows us to obtain for you the maximum award that would be much greater than a single rating. The need to get an attorney right away on the case will increase your chances of getting a fair recovery, and avoid becoming a victim to the carrier’s desire to purposefully limit your recovery.