Landau Injury Law

Even in the best of retail stores, accidents can happen. Doug Landau and the ABRAMS LANDAU team was able to help a Nordstrom’s saleswoman who was injured when a glass wine bucket shattered, deeply cutting her left wrist and right thigh. She required 20 stitches and sustained nerve and tendon damage.

Under the workers compensation Awards in the claim, she received wage loss compensation at the maximum weekly rate of $706.00. While the comp rate is normally 2/3rds of the worker’s average weekly wage, there is a maximum rate, above which there is no comp. So, for clients who are high wage earners, workers comp really does not compensate. As the late, great Professor Larson told me at a luncheon for the oldest (he) and youngest (me !) authors for Mathew Bender Publishing (now Lexis-Nexis),

“Workers Compensation was designed to be a relatively quick administrative PARTIAL wage replacement and medical bill payment system only.”

Doug Landau’s client’s pre-injury average weekly wage was $1,082.78. While she was able to return to work, we put in a claim for permanency payments, as they can be paid even when a client is earning more than their pre-injury wages. The treating orthopedic doctor gave the claimant a permanent partial disability (“PPD”) PPD ratings of 6% to the upper extremity (12 weeks = $8,472); 7% to the left hand (10.5 weeks = $7,413); and 69% to the fingers. The insurance carrier disputed the claim for upper extremity permanency benefits.

The client is a middle-aged woman who is now unable to do any exercising involving her left hand. Mr. Landau’s client came to the Herndon office in order to demonstrate that she is unable to do any heavy lifting with her left hand and wrist. Mr. Landau was able to get the claim settled favorably without the need for, and expense of, a Hearing on permanency and the attendant delay that a decision, appeals and other litigation would require. If you or someone you know has a permanent injury as the result of an injury, call ABRAMS LANDAU today. We help people every day who have serious, permanent and disfiguring injuries. As with this Nordstrom employee, we were are often able to get the maximum compensation benefits for the people we represent.

This entry was posted on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 at 7:04 pm and is filed under Disability, Job Accidents, Workers Compensation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.