This means that if you’re injured while on the job, you’ll likely be compensated for your medical care and lost wages regardless of the cause of the injury. In Arizona, as in most states, workers’ compensation is a “no-fault†system. He has been selected a Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine as well as a Top Rated Attorney by B-Metro Magazine.Workers’ compensation is a state-based system in the United States, which means that each state has its own rules, regulations and requirements. Bernard has earned an AV rating from Martindale-Hubbell’s peer-review rating. Nomberg has practiced workers’ compensation law in Alabama for more than 20 years. If you find yourself in such a situation and need experienced legal assistance or representation, please consider contacting us at 20 or .īernard D. This is the kind of work that we do at the Nomberg Law Firm. This can be a very stressful and confusing time in the injured worker’s life. Most of the time the above mentioned topics are confusing to injured workers. This disability is determined by the loss of access of jobs and the loss of the ability to earn.
Usually a vocational expert will be hired to interview the injured worker and then create opinions as to the vocational disability.
Vocational disability is usually determined after the injured worker can no longer go back to their former job or make the same kind of money they were making before the accident that led to the injuries. The books in this photo are editions of the Directory of Occupational Impairment which are typically used by doctors to assign the PPI rating. The PPI rating that is assigned by the authorized treating physician is both an objective and subjective measure of the injured worker’s permanent impairment and degree of disability. Alternatively, the injured worker is typically compensated based on two main factors: the permanent physical impairment (PPI) rating assigned by the authorized treating physician and, if they have a body as a whole injury, e.g., back or neck injuries, a vocational disability can be considered. What this means is the laws do not allow the injured worker to be compensated for emotional distress, mental anguish, pain and suffering, punitive damages, or lost wages. The sad reality about the workers’ compensation laws in Alabama is that an injured worker cannot be made financially whole. That is when it is time either to settle the claim, which is most often the case, or when their case is tried in court and a judge rules. Hopefully there is not a long gap of time from then until the other time an injured worker is usually compensated at the end of their claim. This leaves them in a time of having no compensation unless they have found employment elsewhere in the interim. However, the reality is that often the injured worker cannot go back to their former job but their workers’ compensation checks have stopped. In theory, now the worker is back at work and making hopefully their same or better salary from prior to being injured. In other words, once the injured worker reaches maximum medical improvement and the doctor releases the injured worker back to work, those checks will then stop being paid. These weekly checks typically will continue to be paid until the authorized treating physician has released the injured worker back to work in some capacity. The amount the worker is compensated during this time period is calculated at two-thirds of their average weekly earnings for the year prior to the injury. The first time typically is after they have been injured on the job and the authorized treating physician takes the employee off work due to those injuries. There are basically two times during the claim that the injured worker potentially could be paid. Under Alabama law, most benefits qualify as indemnification (compensatory) benefits, medical benefits, or death benefits.
The types of benefits an injured worker may be eligible for will depend on the success of the claim and the nature of the injury they have suffered. Nomberg, Partner, The Nomberg Law FirmĪlabama’s workers’ compensation laws are different from those in any other state.