We Know What Your Injuries are Worth. Do you?

We know what injuries are worth, and the earlier we get involved in your case, the more we will be able to assess the value of your case along the way. Workers’ compensation carriers may even choose your doctor based on a belief that the PPI will be low at the end. DO NOT let the insurance companies get away with this! Learn more about PPI and how it affects your settlement.

I just got off the phone with a prospective client who decided not to hire me, which is ok. He had a significant rotator cuff tear with surgery and is now limited in his ability to use his arm and shoulder. He said he cannot lift his arm over his head and is limited to lifting 50 lbs. on a permanent basis. These are significant limitations. His permanent partial impairment (PPI) rating had already been assigned and is somehow only 2% of the whole person. Prospective clients, who do not retain counsel throughout their recovery, will often call us with a low PPI rating. Our ability to help at that point is sometimes limited due to the cost of getting a second impairment rating to contradict the worker’s compensation doctor’s opinion. Doctors charge something in the range of $1,000 to assign a PPI rating only.

A 2% whole person PPI is worth $3,750. I discussed the math with the prospective client and told them that if he got a 5% whole person PPI for another doctor, it would be worth $8,750. However, he would have to pay about $1,000 to secure the second PPI, and if he hired me, he would have to pay me 20% of any settlement. Once we did the math, we figured that he would get very little additional money in his pocket than what he was currently offered. Doctors that do a lot of worker’s comp work with insurance companies to assign PPIs put injured workers in a tough position and impacts what the injuries are worth.

If we had been involved in this case from an earlier time, we would have been able to better forecast what an appropriate PPI would have or should have, been. We would have been better positioned to decide if a second opinion was “worth it.” We may have even have been in a better position to try to negotiate a larger settlement for this injured worker without the need for a second opinion.

Don’t let the insurance company take advantage of you. Know what your injuries are worth by calling the attorneys at Klezmer Maudlin, who will give you an honest assessment of your case and tell you whether or not we think we can help you. We will fight them for you!! With offices statewide, and physical offices in Indianapolis, Lafayette, Jeffersonville and Evansville, our attorneys are well equipped to handle your workers’ compensation case.