Workers’ Compensation Settlement Factors for Brain Injury Cases in South Carolina

The amount of a brain injury settlement you can get in a South Carolina workers' compensation case depends on the nature and severity of the injury. South Carolina workers' compensation law defines the worst brain injury you can have as a “severe, permanent, and physical” brain injury. That type of injury offers the most benefits, including the largest potential financial settlement to help make up for lifelong lost income.

But even if the injury doesn't qualify as a physical brain injury, it may affect other body parts and your ability to work. If you can prove that, you can obtain a workers' compensation permanent and total disability settlement. Those benefits include a financial package that can be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Also, it's different from Social Security disability.

If your brain injury largely heals and doesn't affect your life as much, you can still get a solid settlement.

Before we go on, here's what you need to know if you suffered a brain injury at work in South Carolina:

• You don't know how bad it will get or if it will ever get better.
• You may be risking huge financial benefits you desperately need for your medical care and your family’s financial support.
• The workers' compensation insurance company knows how expensive your case could be. It will look for ways to cheat you, including failure to get proper medical care and attempts to shortchange you in your financial settlement.

The stakes for employees are the highest in brain injury cases. If you're reading this, you either suffered a brain injury, or you are a family member trying to manage the victim’s complex medical care, their household, and now this case. You're overwhelmed, and a prime target for the insurance company to take advantage of.

Don't let it happen. Call toll-free at 888-230-1841 or fill out a Get Help Now form to get your questions answered in a FREE, NO PRESSURE strategy session with a Spartanburg, South Carolina workers’ comp attorney.

Now for the basics on how much of a settlement you can get in various South Carolina workers' compensation brain injury cases.

Settlement Factors in South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Physical Brain Injury Cases

You've got to overcome a high legal hurdle to prove your brain injury is severe, permanent, and physical. It requires a legal team to determine the evidence needed to prove it. You need a medical team to provide key medical evidence. Then the legal team presents the evidence to convince the insurance company to settle the case. If they refuse, the legal team will be prepared to convince a workers' compensation commissioner to find in your favor.

These settlements are easily some of the biggest anyone can obtain in South Carolina workers' compensation cases. They feature these benefits:

1. Lifelong financial support. The financial settlement covers a weekly workers' compensation check for the rest of your life.
2. Lifelong medical care. You get free medical care related to your injury paid by the workers' compensation insurance company.
3. Other potential benefits. You might also get money to upfit your home for handicapped access, provide therapy equipment, home health care, help pay for a handicapped vehicle, and other related necessities.

Properly valuing the cost of this settlement is critical. It takes other experts such as life care planners and maybe even a builder. It's especially important if you consider a clincher settlement. That's a single financial settlement to end the case. Because you get no further benefits with a clincher, you can't consider a settlement this huge, with lifelong implications, without help from an experienced South Carolina workers' compensation attorney.

Even if you don't qualify for this settlement, you may very well qualify for the next highest settlement.

Settlement Factors in South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Brain Injury Permanent and Total Disability Cases

If you can't prove the strict legal definition of physical brain damage, you might still qualify for permanent and total disability benefits. The financial settlement here is not lifelong, but it can still reach a considerable amount.

To prove your right to these benefits, you've got to satisfy South Carolina’s tough two-injury rule. To do that, you've got to prove your brain injury affected another body part. That can include your “psyche,” meaning your ability to reason, control your emotions, and psychological harm such as anxiety and depression. Or maybe your injury weakened your arms or legs. To prove the other affected body part, you'll need a doctor to verify it, preferably a specialist like a psychiatrist, psychologist, neurologist, or neurosurgeon.

You also need to prove these injuries left you without the ability to work in a job you're qualified for. This requires a vocational evaluation, an analysis done by an expert called a vocational consultant.

If you can prove all this, you can qualify for permanent and total disability benefits:

1. A financial settlement of up to 500 weeks of your weekly workers' compensation check.
2. Free medical care related to your injury paid for by the workers' compensation insurance company.

You may even have a Plan B. If your vocational evaluation reveals you can work, but can't earn as much, you can qualify for South Carolina workers’ compensation wage loss benefits. Those benefits can also give a sizable settlement. You can get up to 340 weeks of your weekly workers' compensation check, plus free medical care related to your injury.

Settlements for permanent and total disability or wage loss can also be clinched. To protect these valuable rights that could have lifelong implications, you need an experienced South Carolina workers' compensation attorney.

Let us answer your questions with no pressure to hire, to give you peace of mind. For help with your brain injury case, call a Spartanburg, South Carolina workers’ comp attorney toll-free at 888-230-1841.

South Carolina Workers Compensation Settlements For “Loss of Use of the Brain”

You may be “lucky” and suffer a concussion at work that clears up for the most part. That can still require months of treatment by a specialist, like a neurologist or neurosurgeon.

If so, you still qualify for a good settlement, but you must know how to value it. In South Carolina workers’ compensation cases, even “typical” settlements are complex.  

If you don't qualify for a more serious brain injury settlement, your settlement will be based on South Carolina Regulation 67-1101, which assigns values to certain body parts. For the brain, Regulation 67-1101 assigns a minimum value of 25 weeks and a maximum value of 250 weeks.

Settlements are based on an expected hearing outcome. At a hearing, a commissioner gives a workers’ compensation disability rating based on your doctor's impairment rating and other evidence in the case. That's where an experienced attorney helps most, helping prove the full extent of your disability through how your brain injury affects your life and work.

To show you how you can arrive at a settlement amount in this situation, here are the steps:

1. Let's say the commissioner awards 20% loss of use of the brain.
2. 20% of the 250-week maximum award is 50 weeks.
3. Multiply the 50 weeks by your comp rate (the amount of your weekly check). Let's say it's $500.
4. That means your settlement amount is 50 weeks times $500 which equals $25,000.

You also qualify for free medical care related to your injury paid by the workers' comp insurance company.

This settlement can also be clinched, which usually gives a better settlement amount, but leaves you to pay for future medical care, which health insurance should cover if you have it.

A Lot Can Happen in These Cases. The Stakes Are High—Put it in the Hands of a Professional

Simply put, handling the legal aspects of a brain injury case is no different from the medical aspects. It's a job that requires a professional.

I am a Spartanburg, South Carolina, workers’ compensation attorney here to help you with your brain injury case, because you need it. Call me toll-free at 888-230-1841.

Because this is such a huge decision, I invite you to check me out by reading the reviews actual clients leave on Google, which I don't script, edit, or pay for.