Legal Question in Workers Comp in District of Columbia
permanent total disability
My fiance is trying settle a case of permanent disabilty. We were
just informed that if you are awarded total permanent disability
you do not receive payment per week for the rest of your life. but
only for a certain amount of weeks. How is this possible, if you are
Totally Permanently disabled? what happens after the set amount
of weeks, which I think is 638?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: permanent total disability
As defined in the workers compensation law, "permanent" disability means you have lost use or function of a certain body part permanently, that is, you won't get any better. "Total" refers to the extent of the disability--in this case, it's 100%, as determined by your fiance's doctor. The law determines the number of weeks of benefits that an injured worker is entitled to, depending on the part of the body involved. For example, under DC law, if the injury is to an arm, he would get 312 weeks of compensation. A leg is worth 288 weeks. If more than one body part is injured, there could be a combination of weeks. If the injury is to the back or neck, it's based on income loss.
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