Impairment Rating & Permanent Disability

Video Transcript:

Cindy: Workers Compensation is an area of the law that many workers have limited understanding of. Today, we’re going to be talking with South Carolina Workers Compensation attorney, George Sink of George Sink Injury Lawyers. We’re going to discuss two key terms, impairment rating and permanent disability. So George, thanks for being with me today.

George: Thank you, Cindy.

Cindy: George what is impairment rating and how is it determined?

George: Impairment rating is assessment of how much damage is done to a certain part of a person’s body or their whole body. For example, if I lost my right hand in an accident, I’d have a 100% impairment of my right hand. So that’s an important thing to know and I may have some arm impairment too.

Cindy: Okay, what is maximum medical improvement?

George: That’s when a doctor treats you and when they’re done treating you, they say, we can’t do any more for you, George. So at that point, I have reached what they call maximum medical improvement and at that point, you can assess an impairment rating which a lawyer translates into a disability rating which the Commission uses to settle a claim.

Cindy: Alright, now who makes the impairment rating?

George: The impairment rating is made by a doctor. They usually use the American Medical Association book to guide them in their impairment ratings, so they decide how much a person has lost—of the function of that particular injured part.

Cindy: Now, what if the lawyer or the client disagrees with the impairment rating, do they have any recourse?

George: Usually, what happens is, their lawyer—if they have a lawyer, will translate that into what they call a disability. Disability is a so what thing. So you have a 100% loss of your right hand, what difference does that make? To a lawyer, it makes very little difference. I can still be a good lawyer with only one hand, but to a manual laborer, they may be a 100% disabled, so the disability rating is what you look for and at that point, if they disagree with what the negotiated disability rating is, you can go in front of a commissioner—in South Carolina, the commissioner makes the decisions. You can appeal it to a meeting of the commissioners and then you can go into court if you so desire, if you totally disagree with what everybody decides the disability rating is.

Cindy: Well, this is very enlightening. So really, because it’s so complex, it seems that people really need the advice of a Workers Compensation attorney to understand it.

George: Well, you have to get the impairment rating then you have to decide how much that impairment of that part of the body affects your life, very difficult to do and experience really does help especially in preserving all the rights that you may or may not know that you have under the Workers Compensation law.

Cindy: Very good. Well, George thanks for your time today.

George: Thank you so much, Cindy.

Cindy: This is Cindy Speaker reporting for State Law TV.