Workers’ Compensation: I just got my rating, what happens next?

The following video transcript is about workers compensation proceedings, specifically after you get your medical rating. If you. have additional questions about the process, our Gulfport worker’s comp attorneys can help.

Video Transcript:If you’ve been involved in a worker’s comp accident and you’ve been given a rating you might be wondering, “what’s next?” Typically how this works is as follows: once you’ve reached what we call maximum medical improvement your doctor will actually assign you a rating. To get to that rating they may require you to take a functional capacity exam.

The functional capacity exam is typically at a physical therapist’s office. Your strength in your extremities is tested to determine how much use of that extremity you still have. After you’ve had that functional capacity exam, typically your doctor will review it and then assign you a rating. People want to know, “What do I do after the rating is assigned?” Or, “what’s going to happen?” The answer to that question is that you’re going to get a check in the mail, typically every two weeks, until they’ve paid out that rating.

So what does that mean ? Take a shoulder for example. If you get a 10% rating to your shoulder, what that means is that you take your 200 weeks that you can get for an arm , you multiply that times 10 percent , you get 20 weeks of compensation. Typically paid out every two weeks. And that’s going be at 66 and 2/3 percent of your average weekly wage. So that’s known as your compensation rate.

What’s important for you to know is that’s not all that you’re entitled to under the law. The law says that we look at industrial loss of use. What that means is we look at what impact did this have to your ability to do your job. So that goes towards your education, background, and training and the injury itself. And then decide how much of an impact this had on your ability to do that job. So if you’ve been injured in a workers compensation action and you have questions or need representation please contact one of our experienced Mississippi workers’ compensation attorneys today.