If you have a Longshore claim with an unscheduled injury, your permanent disability is based on your loss of wage earning capacity. If you have a scheduled injury, your permanent disability is based on a number of weeks of compensation for that particular type of injury.
What the heck does that mean?
Well, I can provide a fairly simple explanation but in reality, it’s complicated.
First, what is the difference between a scheduled an unscheduled injury? For the most part, any injury that is not to an extremity is considered an unscheduled disability. Anything related to the spine, like a back or neck injury is unscheduled. Shoulder injuries are unscheduled. Hip injuries have been argued both ways, but I generally consider them unscheduled. Head injuries and mental health conditions like PTSD are considered unscheduled. Arms, hands, legs, feet, hearing, and vision are all scheduled injuries.
When it comes to compensation for permanent disability, or PPD, what does it mean that the injury is “unscheduled” versus “scheduled”? Scheduled injuries have a schedule of benefits outlined in the Longshore statute which are paid for permanent impairment. For example, loss of an arm is paid at 312 weeks of compensation, loss of the big toe is compensated at 38 weeks of compensation. If the injury results in the partial loss of use, then permanent impairment is compensated as a percentage. That’s why you hear things like a torn meniscus in the knee is a 2% impairment, compensation for permanent disability is paid for 2% of 288 weeks, or 5.76 weeks of compensation. So long as you can perform some type of work, any kind at all, a scheduled impairment is paid based on the schedule, without consideration of your individual circumstances. The concert pianist who losses a finger is compensated the same as the truck driver who loses a finger. That may sound unfair, but the idea is to reduce the uncertainty and litigation surrounding permanent impairments. In reality, we still have litigation and uncertainty, it is just focused on the impairment rating itself, not the established value for the loss of the scheduled member. Having strong and credible medical support is crucial to receiving fair and just compensation for your injury.
Establishing permanent impairment for an unscheduled injury is like the wild west. Compensation for your permanent impairment when you have something like a back injury or PTSD, is based on the effect of the injury on your earning capacity. For example, you could make $40 an hour prior to the injury, but because you are now limited to lighter work, you can only make $10 per hour. Your permanent impairment is 66 2/3% of the difference between those numbers.
Comparing average weekly wage at the time of injury to post-injury earning capacity is easy as pie if you have actually returned to some type of employment after recovering from your injury. More often than not, the injured worker has not returned to work when this assessment is being made, so we are all guessing about current earning abilities. There may be competing Functional Capacity Evaluations with vastly different estimates of abilities and limitations. Transferable skills will be outlined and debated and debunked. There will be Job Analyses approved by some physicians and disapproved by others. There will be Labor Market Surveys, some accurate some bogus.
Like I said, it’s complicated. The value of your permanent impairment, and in turn the value of your claim, will most definitely rise and fall with the strength of your position on all of these factors. Your employer and its insurance carrier are going to be aggressive in developing their positions, and they will have the help of really experienced defense counsel. That doesn’t mean your sunk. It does mean you need to get your ducks lined up. As your medical condition stabilizes and you start thinking about what’s next, get some help. Talk to an attorney so you understand what’s coming, and can put your best claim forward.
WELCH&CONDON 