A workplace injury can rock your world. Sure, it can disrupt your daily activities, but it can also leave you with painful injuries that are costly to treat and time-consuming when it comes to rehabilitation, especially when you’ve lost wages due to an inability to work. Of course, workers’ compensation benefits may be available to you, but the amount of your benefits award may be dependent on your ability to show the extent of your injuries.
Nebraska law recognizes a number of statuses for workers’ compensation purposes. Temporary total disability allows you to recover compensation due to a complete inability to work due to a workplace injury or illness. The maximum benefit for temporary total disability is two-thirds of your average weekly earnings. Benefits can also be paid to those who have a temporary partial disability, which is where you have to miss some work due to your injury or illness, such as when you have to attend medical appointments. Here, you will be compensated two-thirds of the amount you would have made if you had worked that missed time. Similar benefits are available to those whose partial disability is permanent.
But those aren’t the only recoverable benefits under workers’ compensation. For example, an injured worker may also receive benefits for his or her loss of earning capacity. This type of benefit is awarded to those who are deemed qualifying after an examination of his or her head, spine, or bilateral body part injury. Impairment is only recognized when there are permanent restrictions, such as paralysis or damage to one’s mental capacity.
So what does this mean for you? It means that if you’ve suffered an on-the-job injury, then you need to be prepared to make strong legal arguments for the maximum compensation allowable under the workers’ compensation system. This likely means gathering medical evidence that demonstrates the severity of your injury or illness and being prepared to counter any arguments posed by the other side. If you think you could benefit from assistance with this process, then you may want to think about reaching out to an attorney of your choosing.