Available Benefits

Hemmings & Stevens, P.L.L.C., has provided a list of potential benefits you can receive from a workers’ compensation claim:

Medical Treatment
Your employer or its insurance company should direct and pay for your medical treatment, including prescriptions and medical supplies that are medically necessary.

Lost Wage Compensation
No compensation is due for the first seven (7) days of lost time unless the disability exceeds 21 days. Therefore, if you are unable to work and are taken out of work, your first workers’ compensation check will not include payment for the first seven days. Workers’ compensation checks are typically paid weekly. When you are out of work for workers’ compensation you do not receive your full wages. You will receive 66 2/3 percent of your average weekly wage, not to exceed the maximum benefit set by the Industrial Commission. In 2010, the maximum weekly benefit that could be received is $834.00. You are eligible to receive weekly lost time benefits until you are able to return to work.

Permanent Partial Disability
If you have a total or partial loss of use of a member of the body or inability to earn the same wages in any employment as earned at the time of injury, then you have a permanent partial disability. The Industrial Commission will determine permanent partial disability based on the impairment ratings of physicians or the evidence of consideration of wage- earning capacity.

Mileage
If you travel more than twenty miles round trip for medical treatment, you can be compensated for your mileage.

Rehabilitative Professionals
You may be entitled to have a rehabilitation professional such as a nurse caseworker assist in coordinating your medical care. If you are unable to return to work in the job you held at the time of your injury, your employer or its insurance carrier may also pay for a vocational caseworker to assist you in finding other employment.

For questions about workers’ compensation issues and to learn more about how to recover the maximum amount available for your work-related injury, you may call us for a free consultation and evaluation of your case. We represent individuals and families statewide in any city or county in the State of North Carolina.

For more information about our services, please contact us.