I’m Bob Moodie from Friedman Law Office in Lincoln, Nebraska. Thank you for visiting our Blog. I’m going to talk about Permanent Disability Benefits in Nebraska Workers’ Compensation cases. These are the benefits which are paid to compensate the injured worker for any permanent physical impairment that results from an accident at work.
According to the Workers’ Compensation statutes, permanent disability benefits are supposed to be paid in weekly installments. The amount you are paid per week and the number of weeks you receive it depends on what part of your body is injured and how bad the injury is. When the injury is to your hands, arms, feet, legs, fingers or toes, we refer to a list in the statutes that tells us how much those parts of the body are worth. If we know your average weekly wage and the impairment rating assigned to that part of the body, we can determine how much is paid per week and the number of eligible weeks. (text – “Weekly payments based on impairment”)
When the injury is in the back, neck or head, the calculation is a little more difficult. Permanent disability benefits for injuries in those parts of the body are supposed to not only take into account the physical impairment but also how that impairment is going to affect your ability to find a job, hold a job and earn money doing a job. We call this evaluating your “loss of earning capacity.” The calculation for each person is different because it will depend not only on the severity of your injury but also on your education and work history. (text – “benefits based on loss of earning capacity”)
Maximizing your permanent disability benefits is one ways in which an experienced lawyer can make the biggest contribution to your case. You should not just assume that your employer or their insurance company is doing it right.
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