Back Injury Disability: Compensation Available

Should an employee incur a back injury as the result of their job function, he or she may be eligible to recover compensation for their injuries via a number of methods, most notably through workers’ compensation benefits. Should a back injury workers’ compensation claim be disputed by your employer, or eventually constitute a temporary or permanent disability, a victim will most likely require the intervention of a lawyer to retain their rights to compensation. Furthermore, certain victims of back injury disabilities may be eligible for compensation under the Social Security Disability Insurance program. The following article outlines commonly made claims of disability relating to work-related back injuries and outlines the compensation available to certain injured workers.

Types of Disability and Associated Benefits

In essence, a victim of disabling back injuries as the result of work-related acquired injury or accidents is eligible for disability compensation based on their inability to work. Disability claims, and their related compensation for losses, generally fall into one of the four following categories. It should be noted that state laws widely vary on the rights of injured workers to receive compensation for employment-related injuries.

• Permanent total disabilities, which are back injuries that prevent an employee from ever returning to the workforce in the same work capacity as held prior to the appearance of a back injury

• Permanent partial disabilities, which are back injuries permanent in nature, but those that only partially prevent the ability to return to one’s previous job function

• Temporary total disabilities, which are back injuries that prevent an employee from working at all, but the inability to work is temporary in nature

• Temporary partial disabilities, which are back injuries that are both only partially preventing a worker to return to their previous work capacity and also only temporary in nature

The compensation available for lost wages as the result of the aforementioned types of disabilities will vary in every case and are based most notably on the previous income of the injured worker and state laws that regulate the amount of compensation available to any given worker.

Compensation Outside of Lost Wages in Disability Claims

Aside from lost income earnings as the result of a back injury while on the job, an employee is also entitled to other forms of compensation for their losses in certain cases. These include compensation for medical care, medical rehabilitation care, and vocational rehabilitation, should a worker be unable to return to their previous job function.

Getting Legal Help with Back Injury Disability Compensation Claims

Employment-related injury and disability claims are a highly case and state-specific legal issue that most victims would benefit from consulting a lawyer about before accepting any form of compensation from their employer or employer’s workers’ compensation insurance coverage company.