Personal Injury Law

What is my shoulder injury case worth with surgery?

By Steve Lombardi

QUESTION: I am a nurse and I got hurt at work, I had surgery on my shoulder and the doctor has said I'm at MMI. His rating was 9% of the shoulder. My lawyer is going by 6% body as a whole, how much should I be asking for?

CAVEAT: Well first I'll say this is common in my practice to be asked for a second opinion and I do give them, without charge. I do it even for lawyers and who knows maybe I have with your lawyer. That doesn't mean everyone should write to me asking for a free consultation for a second opinion.

ANSWER: If you want a second opinion then you should call or write me through our firm website. This is a public viewed website, I believe and you may be exposing privileged information. Just knowing the permanent impairment rating, the injured area of the body and that you are a CNA is not enough to value a case. I've done this for 26 years and have never rated a nonscheduled injury case with so little information. If any lawyer does express and opinion with so little information, they are guessing and the opinion is in all likelihood worthless. In general there are factors to consider, age, education level, how long the healing period took, work restrictions placed by the doctor, the restrictions you believe you have for working using the shoulder and why you believe that it is restricted, previous limitations, how your employer has treated you since the injury, are you back to work doing the same job, were accommodations made, your weekly compensation rate, whether it is correctly calculated then a thorough reading of the competing medical opinions. I'm curious, hasn't your attorney educated you about what counts towards the evaluation? If not, then check out my website and blog. Steve Lombardi

Full post as published by Des Moines Personal Injury Lawyer on March 09, 2008 (boomark / email).