Workers’ compensation insurance exists to help us when we’re hurt at work. If you’ve sustained a work-related injury, workers’ compensation will help you pay medical bills and other household costs until you’re ready to come back to your job. But what happens if you suffered an injury that left you without the use of a limb or one of your senses? Fortunately, the state does provide compensation for these ailments. When damage is done to render a part of the body unusable, the state will calculate how much this costs you using the scheduled loss of use regulation.
If you’ve lost a limb due to a work-related accident, contact our Chicago workers’ compensation lawyers. You may be eligible to receive compensation through the scheduled loss of use regulation.
Call us for a free consultation today at (312) 236-2900.
A scheduled loss uses a chart that lists body parts and assigns a value to each one of them. When an employee is injured and loses partial or full mobility of a body or senses, the schedule is used to calculate the award that can be received for the injury. Since the schedule is created by the state, the values can vary. The list generally includes arms, legs, vision, and hearing. Some states may include internal organs, and many of them also list fingers and toes.
Often times, you have to wait until you have reached maximum medical improvement (MMI) before you can be considered eligible for a schedule loss. MMI means the doctors think your injury is as healed as it will be and cannot improve any more.
A scheduled loss of use is dependent upon a few factors, such as:
Illinois created a schedule loss of use guide that lists the number of weeks for each injury. The number of weeks that corresponds with your injury is multiplied by 60 percent of your average weekly wage (AWW) to determine the amount of your award.
If your body part must be amputated or you have lost all use of it, that is considered a 100 percent loss. So, you would use the entire number of weeks listed on the chart that corresponds to your injury. If you experience a partial loss, the number of weeks used is 50 percent of the amount listed. Accordingly, any percent of loss experienced coordinates with the number of weeks used in the calculation. The guide provides the basis for your calculations to see how much compensation you are eligible for.
If you’ve lost the partial or full use of one of your limbs due to a work-related injury, you may qualify for a scheduled loss of use award. Contact our Chicago workers’ compensation lawyers at Staver Accident Injury Lawyers, P.C. to help you with your case. We can go over the scheduled loss guide and help determine if you are eligible to receive payment.
Contact us today at (312) 236-2900 to speak to one of our attorneys during no cost case evaluation.
When you’re fighting for maximum compensation, we know what it takes to get it.
