Disability Ratings
Disability ratings refer to assessments handed down by a medical professional as a way to more definitively evaluate the level of permanent impairment a person has suffered as a result of his workplace injuries. Also referred to as medical impairment ratings, disability ratings are intended to provide injured workers with a fair amount of compensation for the irreversible physical damage that may have been caused by their workplace injuries.
Disability ratings are only assigned once it has been determined that a person has reached his maximum medical improvement
(i.e., that, regardless of additional medical treatments, the individual will not recover any further from his workplace injuries).
While physicians who assign disability ratings do so based on the guidelines set forth in the American Medical Association’s (AMA’s) Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, the specific benefits associated with each disability rating are spelled out in Colorado Code sections 8-42-101 through 8-42-125. This means that the specific disability rating that a person is given is crucial to the amount of benefits he may later receive.
What You Need to Know About Disability Ratings
Here is some additional important information that all workers in Colorado should know about disability ratings:
- For some injuries and their associated disability ratings, injured workers will receive a predetermined payout (for example, 100 weeks of benefits).
- When injuries are not listed in the AMA’s Guide and/or in the Colorado workers’ compensation law, a physician has the discretion to assign a whole person rating to the injured worker. This rating essentially assesses how a particular injury affects an individual in relation to his ability to operate on the whole.
- Doctors do not always assign the proper disability rating to injured workers, and such mistakes can cost injured parties hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars in workers’ compensation benefits.
Denver Workers’ Compensation Lawyers Who Will Champion Your Rights
Do you think that you may have been assigned the wrong disability rating? If so, the skilled Denver workers’ compensation attorneys at the Bisset Law Firm want you to know that we are here to aggressively advocate your rights and help you obtain the benefits you need and deserve. Our experienced legal professionals are dedicated to:
- Providing each of our clients with the highest quality legal representation
- Providing our clients with upfront, honest answers about their cases – including the strengths and challenges associated with their cases, their choices for moving forward and their best options regarding a settlement or litigating their case in trial proceedings
- Keeping each of our clients informed of every development in their cases
- Meeting all of our clients’ case deadlines
- Working diligently to keep our clients’ cases moving forward towards resolution
- Helping our clients obtain the best possible outcomes from their cases.
While we offer knowledgeable, superior counsel to anyone seriously injured on the job, some of our additional key strengths include our fierce negotiating skills, our extensive trial experience and our readiness to take decisive action when the denial or delay of a workers’ compensation claim is finally overruled.
Contact Us Today
Contact the Denver workers’ compensation lawyers at the Bisset Law Firm by calling (303) 894-8900 to learn more about your rights and receive a professional evaluation of your case.
