No one really has to think too much about workers’ compensation benefits until a work injury actually occurs. At that point the injured worker will be forced to become familiar with what benefits he may collect, and how much those benefits will be, following a work accident. Here are some of these available benefits, as well as the amount of these benefits an injured worker may collect under the workers’ compensation laws of Massachusetts.

Medical Bills

A workers’ comp insurance company must pay the medical bills of an injured employee. This insurance company insures the employer of the employee and is responsible for these payments to the employee. In order to qualify for medical bill payments by the insurance company, the bills must be reasonable, necessary and related to the work injury. If these elements are met and payment is still not made for the treatment, then a workers’ comp attorney can file a claim on behalf of the injured worker for these benefits.

Temporary Total Disability Benefits

If the injured employee is out of work for 5 days (they don’t have to be consecutive) and he is temporarily totally disabled from working, he may collect 60% of his average weekly wage in workers’ compensation benefits. The injured worker may collect these benefits for up to 3 years.

Temporary Partial Disability Benefits

These benefits are available to an injured employee who is only temporarily partially disabled from working, but he does have a work capacity. These benefits are equal to 75% of the employee’s temporary total disability benefit amount. As with temporary total disability benefits, the injured worker must be out of work for 5 days.  These benefits are available for four years. If these benefits are denied, the injured worker (or his lawyer) may file a claim contesting this denial at the Department of Industrial Accidents.

Permanent Total Disability

These payments are only available to injured workers who are permanently unable to work due to a work injury. The amount available is 2/3 of the employee’s average weekly wage. These benefits can be collected for as long as the permanent disability benefits last.  Note you don’t need to exhaust total disability benefits before you can seek permanent of total disability benefits.

Boston Workers’ Compensation Lawyer

No matter how your on-the-job injury occurred, it is important to hire a work injury lawyer in Boston that can help you navigate the claims as well as the legal portions of your case. Call the Earley Law Group Injury Lawyers today for your free legal consultation to talk about your specific workers’ compensation issue.