Jason Perkins.
I'm an attorney that specializes in representing injured workers in workers' compensation claims.
Today I'm going to talk to you a little bit about permanent partial disability benefits.
There's three basic types of workers' compensation benefits in Georgia.
First benefit's what's called your wage lost benefits, or temporary total disability benefits.
You get those when you're out of work because of your injury.
The second type of benefits is your medical benefits.
That's not a benefit that is paid to you, but it's paid for you by the insurance company.
In other words, you don't have to pay anything to the doctor when you get medical treatment
for your injury.
The third benefit that I'm going to talk to you about today that a lot of people don't
know about is permanent partial disability benefits, or PPD benefits for short.
What are PPD benefits?
Basically, they're a benefit that's paid to you because you end up with a permanent impairment
as a result of your injury.
Workers' compensation in Georgia and a lot of other states doesn't pay you anything for
pain and suffering.
You end up with a permanent impairment from your injury, and you can get a rating from
the doctor that will entitle you to some additional benefits.
The doctor gives you that rating after you reach what's called maximum medical improvement.
Maximum medical improvement, or MMI for short, means the doctor's got you as good as he can
get you.
Now, if you're not as good as you were before you got injured, then the doctor should use
a book that's printed by the American Medical Association to determine your permanent partial
disability rating.
That book's called the American Medical Association Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment.
In Georgia, doctors are required to use the fifth edition.
This book attempts to rate any possible injury that you might have.
Now, how do you determine how much PPD benefits you receive?
The amount of benefits you receive depends on how high a rating the doctor gives you.
Higher ratings generally mean you get more weeks of benefits.
However, you need to know more than just the percent of the rating.
You also need to know the body part that the doctor is rating.
The doctor may rate you to the body as a whole or to a specific body part.
Let me give you a few examples.
In Georgia if you received a 20% rating and that rating was to the body as a whole, you
would receive 60 weeks of permanent partial disability benefits.
It's basically three weeks for every percent that you're rated.
However, if that rating was to your upper extremity, or what's known as your arm, you'd
only receive 45 weeks of benefits.
If the 20% rating was to your foot, you'd only receive 27 weeks of benefits.
How do you determine your benefit amount for your permanent partial disability benefits?
Well, if you've received temporary total disability benefits from being out of work because of
your injury, your benefit amount should be the same amount for week.
If for some reason you haven't received those benefits, then you need to figure out what
your average weekly wage is.
Now, the insurance company should make this determination and should send you a form with
the information on it.
You need to know yourself how to determine it as well.
Basically, in most circumstances you look at the 13 weeks before you were injured, come
up with an average of what you made during those weeks, and then the insurance company
has to pay you two-thirds of that average.
For example, if you average $600 a week in the 13 weeks before you were injured, then
the insurance company should pay you $400 a week in permanent partial disability benefits.
This has been the basics in permanent partial disability benefits in Georgia.
Look for more videos from me in the future about additional information about permanent
partial disability benefits and other workers' compensation benefits.
If you'd like more information in the meantime you can visit our website, www.perkinslawtalk.com.
We have a blog there where you can find helpful information, and you can also arrange for
a free consultation with me by completing our Need Help form.
You can also call me to set up a free consultation.
My phone number is 770-214-8885.
Thanks for your time today.