Aside from medical care, the other major workers' compensation benefit is lost wages, also known as indemnity. Whether you are able to work, with or without restrictions, is up to your treating doctor.

There are several types of indemnity available:

Temporary Indemnity means lost wages available to you while you are still recovering from your injury. These are benefits paid while you are still healing and recovering from your injury. Temporary indemnity is payable for a maximum of 2 years.

There are two classifications of temporary indemnity:

1. Temporary, total indemnity. This means that you cannot work at all and you will get the maximum compensation.
2. Temporary, partial disability. This means that your doctor has put you on "light duty" and that you can work with physical restrictions (for example, no lifting more than 10 pounds)

Permanent Disability refers to lost wages which are paid after your doctor states that you are fully healed (this is called "maximum medical improvement"). If your doctor assigns an impairment rating because you have a permanent injury, you are entitled to receive additional lost wages called income, impairment benefits. If your injury is so severe that you cannot work again, you may be entitled to permanent total disability benefits. These are paid over your entire lifetime.

The rate of lost wage compensation you will receive is calculated according to the "average weekly wage", which is the average of your earnings for the 13 weeks before you were injured.

If you have been injured on the job, you may have a valid workers' compensation claim. Please contact Randy Zeldin for a free consultation.