Settlement for Ankle Injury

[philbobber]

I'm going to do my best to make this short and sweet. I fell approximately 14 feet at work back in August 2011. I landed on my feet, and severely injured one of my ankles. I was taken by a supervisor to a occupational medicine clinic, where I seen a P.A., who released me back to work the same day, even though my ankle was bigger around than my thigh, and according to him, not broken. He diagnosed the injury as a severe ankle sprain, and ordered an MRI and close to a dozen xrays. Approximately 6-9weeks later, I was back in work boots and working with restrictions, while going through therapy 3 times a week. After doing about 6 weeks of therapy, my ankle hadn't improved much, so I was referred to an orthopedic surgeon to talk about surgery. He determined after a second MRI and more xrays that nothing he could see was broke, but my ligaments weren't healing back together properly. More therapy and exercises and time, all while working with restrictions and things still don't improve. Finally in late January 2012, I had surgery to repair 2/3 ligaments on the outside of my foot/ankle. The surgeon ended up removing a bunch of scar tissue and a piece of bone about the size of a quarter. It's now early April, and I have been released back to work at the beginning of next month. I have been collecting ttd checks since the surgery and I have been wondering what I can expect for a settlement. I feel like this mess is almost over and I'd like to get an idea of what this pain in the butt is going to be worth... Which leads me to my next question. I plan on changing jobs at some point in the near future. When can I give notice to my current employer that I'm leaving, and when can I start my new job? The change of employment is actually more important to me than the settlement. I just want this nightmare to be over so I can get on with my life... Any feedback is greatly appreciated, and if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

[Ob3135]

and I have been wondering what I can expect for a settlement.

Nothing if your heeled up, your employer it sounds like has done everything he can for you, provided weekly checks when you were off, gave you the surgery you needed, etc... So if your completely healed up then that’s it. Now if you have permanent loss of function or impairment due to the injury, and the docs all agree that a percentage of your abilities to make wages have been permanently taken away, then there is a possibility you could get something, but I'll give you a for instance, I lost a leg completely and using the same calculation they use, the dollar amount using the laws formula I would have gotten like 25K for losing my leg above my knee... So you can figure what a guess would be to losing slight minimal use of a ankle. So the law is not in your favor un fortunately there.

I feel like this mess is almost over and I'd like to get an idea of what this pain in the butt is going to be worth...

Well, not to sound to blunt here but I'm gonna sound blunter than intended... This is not a pain in the butt, this is your employer doing the right thing by you, getting your coverage for you by writing a big check each month, so that when you got hurt your completely covered and not just covered they paid all the doc's, paid you weekly or Bi-Weekly paychecks at a reasonable rate, and held up his part of the deal perfectly unless I'm reading it wrong. You cant blame your employer or the insurance company for the doctors not originally finding the issue or not diagnosing it properly, they had nothing to do with that, so they wouldn’t owe you anything for that pain in the butt part. As for the surgery, I've now had 14, and I think we are really damn lucky to have all that paid for and be getting a pay check rather than just kicked to the curb they our grandparents would have been to fend for themselves... This is not a cash cow, this is not a "Yeeee-Hawwww I hit the jack pot"... All Work comp is for is to pay for you to get your body repaired and cover your cost of living and bills, and then other things to but not in your case. In my case and many others there has been legitimate loss of ability to make future wages, lucky to be able to ever make anymore. So thats different any there are options to go talk about future earnings loss. But not until a doc says you cant earn wages compared to the past. Sounds like your moving up hopefully. So thats no issue.

I guess what I'm saying is this is what causes guy's like me trouble getting future wages approved even though we are severely injured for life now. They dont owe you a dime for the "Pain" of having to allow them to fix your injuries...

Which leads me to my next question. I plan on changing jobs at some point in the near future. When can I give notice to my current employer that I'm leaving, and when can I start my new job?

Whenever you want to... This wont affect your claim at all unless your trying to claim you cant make good wages anymore and the new job pays good wages, but in that case I think you probably wouldn't want to discuss that out here, it's gonna get folks hackles up...
Also, I would make damn sure you delete this post unless your new employer might see it, and dont talk like this on face book. If they get wind or feeling that you feel the trouble of having your injuries paid for by them is a inconvenience that would justify them having to pay you a settlement then you probably wont get that job. Gotta be careful how you phrase things, no matter where you are or how private it seems, you never know if your new boss isn't setting at home reading these forums, and I get the feeling you wouldn’t want him to read your post, just a guess...
P.S. My boss does read these sites...
Good lord, no wonder comp insurance companies are so petty and hard to deal with when you have a real long term injury… Everyone thinks they are owed a settlement, hell I’ll just be happy if I’m fixed and healed and able to work, I’d give anything to be all fixed and looking at the excitement of upgrading to a new job, how exciting and freaking relieving that would be!

---------- Post added at 10:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:59 PM ----------

You know I think maybe I went too far and spent too much time on something that has nothing to do with me and I shouldn’t have been so direct and blunt. But you know after you've been in traction treatments and having spinal surgeries, and epidural shots, then another spinal surgery, then more traction, it just starts to get to you when things like this pop up sometimes...

I guess I am sorry, I should have just rolled my eyes and moved on... MY Bad...

[BeachGirl]

I'm going to do my best to make this short and sweet. I fell approximately 14 feet at work back in August 2011. I landed on my feet, and severely injured one of my ankles. I was taken by a supervisor to a occupational medicine clinic, where I seen a P.A., who released me back to work the same day, even though my ankle was bigger around than my thigh, and according to him, not broken. He diagnosed the injury as a severe ankle sprain, and ordered an MRI and close to a dozen xrays. Approximately 6-9weeks later, I was back in work boots and working with restrictions, while going through therapy 3 times a week. After doing about 6 weeks of therapy, my ankle hadn't improved much, so I was referred to an orthopedic surgeon to talk about surgery. He determined after a second MRI and more xrays that nothing he could see was broke, but my ligaments weren't healing back together properly. More therapy and exercises and time, all while working with restrictions and things still don't improve. Finally in late January 2012, I had surgery to repair 2/3 ligaments on the outside of my foot/ankle. The surgeon ended up removing a bunch of scar tissue and a piece of bone about the size of a quarter. It's now early April, and I have been released back to work at the beginning of next month. I have been collecting ttd checks since the surgery and I have been wondering what I can expect for a settlement. I feel like this mess is almost over and I'd like to get an idea of what this pain in the butt is going to be worth... Which leads me to my next question. I plan on changing jobs at some point in the near future. When can I give notice to my current employer that I'm leaving, and when can I start my new job? The change of employment is actually more important to me than the settlement. I just want this nightmare to be over so I can get on with my life... Any feedback is greatly appreciated, and if anyone has any questions, please feel free to ask.

1st of all you can pretty much disregard what the previous poster said regarding settlements. Yes your employer has done what they should so far but you ARE entitled to a settlelment in Illinois for your injury, even if you have no perm restrictions given by your Dr's.

The way settlements are calculated in Illinois is there is a chart that asigns a weeks worth to each part of the body. You will find it on the Illinois WC site or in the handbook that should have been sent to you. For example if an arm is worth 259 weeks max and your injury is considered to be 20% loss of use (and there is always a loss of use when surgery has happened) you would received 20% of the 259 weeks at your TTD rate. Let's say your TTD rate was $500 a week. 259 weeks X 20% = 51.8 weeks X $500 = $25,900. So your settlement would be $25,900.

The tricky part in Illinois is without an attorney the IC will offer you the lowest settlement they can get approved and won't budge. With an attorney you're fee will be 20% of your settlement. but attorneys have the power and knowledge to get you more than you can for yourself.

You can quit yoiur job any time you'd like it will have no bearing on your WC case. My daughter resigned from her job months before she settled.

Let meknow if I can help in any other way.

beachgirl

[Ob3135]

Wow if I lived in Illinois, I'd be a millionaire, here in Alaska, I can barely even find a attorney who will consider comp cases. We are just happy if they fix us and pay us during the fixing... Thats amazing how thats done...

[airdale]

Wow if I lived in Illinois, I'd be a millionaire, here in Alaska, I can barely even find a attorney who will consider comp cases. We are just happy if they fix us and pay us during the fixing... Thats amazing how thats done...

If its said once, its been said a thousand times on this site.....Stop voting against your best intrests....republicains could care less about you, in Alaska or any other republicain controled state.....Illinois is one of the last "blue coller states" dosent mean there perfict, just that big corparations havent paid off the system as of " YET".....

[philbobber]

1st of all you can pretty much disregard what the previous poster said regarding settlements. Yes your employer has done what they should so far but you ARE entitled to a settlelment in Illinois for your injury, even if you have no perm restrictions given by your Dr's.

The way settlements are calculated in Illinois is there is a chart that asigns a weeks worth to each part of the body. You will find it on the Illinois WC site or in the handbook that should have been sent to you. For example if an arm is worth 259 weeks max and your injury is considered to be 20% loss of use (and there is always a loss of use when surgery has happened) you would received 20% of the 259 weeks at your TTD rate. Let's say your TTD rate was $500 a week. 259 weeks X 20% = 51.8 weeks X $500 = $25,900. So your settlement would be $25,900.

The tricky part in Illinois is without an attorney the IC will offer you the lowest settlement they can get approved and won't budge. With an attorney you're fee will be 20% of your settlement. but attorneys have the power and knowledge to get you more than you can for yourself.

You can quit yoiur job any time you'd like it will have no bearing on your WC case. My daughter resigned from her job months before she settled.

Let meknow if I can help in any other way.

beachgirl

Ok, so is this where a functional capacity exam comes into play? And once the percent loss has been determined, should I worry about how other prospective employers will look at the FCE and the percent loss of my foot?

[BeachGirl]

Ok, so is this where a functional capacity exam comes into play? And once the percent loss has been determined, should I worry about how other prospective employers will look at the FCE and the percent loss of my foot?

Whose asked for the FCE? Dr's in Illinois don't give the % of loss. % of loss is hammered between your side and the IC, based on prior cases (and you have no access to prior cases only attorneys do). Prospective employers won't know anything other than what you tell them, so don't worry about that. Just be sure if you start another job before you settle that you follow any restrictions any Dr assign you.

beachgirl

[philbobber]

Whose asked for the FCE? Dr's in Illinois don't give the % of loss. % of loss is hammered between your side and the IC, based on prior cases (and you have no access to prior cases only attorneys do). Prospective employers won't know anything other than what you tell them, so don't worry about that. Just be sure if you start another job before you settle that you follow any restrictions any Dr assign you.

beachgirl

My attorney requested it, and when I asked the physician, he tried talking me out of it. I haven't had one yet, but if my attorney ever calls me back, which he seldom does (which is why I've resorted to this forum to get some answers), I'm sure we will talk about the FCE again. He has also advised me not to quit my current job until this is over with, which is why I asked about the change in employment on here. Thanks beachgirl.