Workers’ Compensation Attorney in Saginaw

A: The amount you can receive in weekly workers’ compensation disability benefits depends on what is known as your “average weekly wage.” Basically, your average weekly wage is calculated by taking the highest 39 weeks of wages from the last 52 weeks you worked before your injury. We then calculate the average wages over this 39-week period. There is a rate chart published by the Department of Workers’ Compensation for each year. The rate chart tells us how much you will receive for your injury depending on your average weekly wage. Usually, the amount you are paid comes out to about 2/3 of your gross average wage at the time of your injury. There are maximum amounts, which limit the amount a person can receive. The maximum amounts change from year to year. If you are receiving workers’ compensation benefits and are questioning whether you are receiving the correct amount, please feel free to call our office and schedule an appointment. We will be happy to review your wage records with you to determine if you are being paid correctly.

A: You can receive workers’ compensation benefits for as long as you are disabled. There are certain other payments that can be used to reduce the amount of workers’ compensation benefits received. Other sources that can reduce workers’ compensation benefits include pensions, Social Security retirement benefits, and/or payment of some sickness and accident benefits. The amounts of the reductions and the circumstances under which workers’ compensation benefits can be reduced get rather complicated, and if your workers’ compensation benefits are being reduced or “coordinated” with any other source, you should consult a lawyer to determine whether you are being properly paid. Our firm is happy to conduct such reviews for you.

Often, when an injured worker is receiving workers’ compensation benefits, his/her employer or insurance carrier will attempt to place the injured worker in other jobs. If the job is a reasonable job that the injured worker can do within his or her restrictions, the employee must try that job or the workers’ compensation benefits can be suspended.

A: There is currently much fighting about this between the injured employee, the employers, and insurance companies. An injured worker has a right to up to two years of job retraining or vocational rehabilitation. The employer or insurance carrier must pay for this job retraining or vocational rehabilitation. These provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act were put into law to benefit the injured employee. For the past several years, however, many employers and insurance carriers have been using this portion of the Act against the injured employee. They have been doing this by telling the injured employee they are going to retrain them as, for example, a security guard or a telephone sales solicitor. Many employers and insurance carriers make no effort to provide meaningful job retraining, and would rather stick an injured employee in a job that pays minimum wage and offers no advancement.

We do not believe this is meaningful job retraining and, therefore, we recommend that employees who are injured at work seek legal advice regarding their rights to vocational rehabilitation so that they can get retrained in a job that will provide a good income in the future.

Our firm is available to offer consultations to people regarding their rights under the vocational rehabilitation portions of the Workers’ Compensation Act.