How To Acquire Workers Compensation Benefits?

When you are injured due to the negligence of another person or entity, you can bring a lawsuit against them and attempt to collect monies based on any injuries and other losses you have sustained. If that negligent party is your employer, such a lawsuit is generally not permitted. Instead, as ak compensation lawyers will tell you, you will bring a claim for workers’ compensation and seek to collect through workers’ compensation insurance your employer was typically required to pay into.

Even though not a formal lawsuit, ak compensation lawyers are able to help you prosecute a workers’ compensation claim. The paperwork is different from what must be filed in order to bring a traditional lawsuit, and typically there is no judge or jury, but rather a workers’ compensation board that will determine what, if any, benefits you are entitled to.

What is recoverable in a workers’ compensation claim is also different. For example, an injured party in Alaska is able to recover temporary disability benefits and/or permanent disability benefits, depending on the circumstances. Most commonly, the benefits paid while an injured party recovers and receives treatment for his or her injuries are “temporary disability benefits” while those paid once an he is fully healed, or is not able to heal anymore, are “permanent disability benefits.”

In order to receive either, the person making the claim must demonstrate that (i) there was some sort of negligence on the part of the employer, (ii) the injury occurred during the course of employment and (iii) that actual injuries were sustained. If this is done, payment will be determined in consideration of the injured party’s gross weekly income on the date of injury.

In calculating the actual benefits to be paid, the workers’ compensation board will generally calculate temporary disability benefits at 80% of the injured party’s gross weekly income. However, caps are set at no less than $273.00 per week and no greater than $1,239.00 per week.

When it comes to calculating temporary partial disability benefits, the board will also take into account cases where an employer can still provide you work, but at a lesser amount of pay (whether due to limited amount of work or lower rate of pay). In this circumstance, the benefit will be 80% of the difference between what you earned prior to the injuries and what you earn after.

In the more severe circumstances where an injured party is determined to be permanently disabled (and completely unable to work anymore), he or she will you will be entitled to permanent total disability benefits. These are generally calculated at 80% of your previous gross weekly wages, and these benefits will be paid for the entire period you are deemed to be totally disabled.

Lawsuits may be difficult to prosecute and, as a result, require representation from a legal professional. As they are less common, compensation lawyers should be retained to prosecute any claim where you are injured at work.