The Value of a Knee Injury Case in Workers’ Compensation
You hurt your knee at work. Now you want to know the value of your knee injury workers’ comp case. Well, I’m a lawyer. And unfortunately, you have to get a lawyer answer. It depends.
Knee injuries can range from a minor knee contusion or sprain to a completely shattered knee cap. Common bad knee injuries are torn ACL or MCLs or fractured or dislocated knees. It might go without saying – generally speaking, the worse an injury is, the more the compensation.
The Averages
- $12,754 for a permanent partial disability award, meaning the case is staying open for medical and/or allowing for a worsening
- $25,453 for a final settlement
- 16.26% = The average knee injury disablement in PPD cases
- Get more specific -> Get an approximate value of your case here.
If you don’t know the terms or the acronyms of comp, you should either educate yourself on this site, get a good comp attorney, or both. It’s important to know what PPD is, what MMI is, and the pros and cons of settlements vs. stipulations. The numbers above come from the Comp Pinkbook, a statistical book on Maryland workers’ compensation.
Big Cases, Settlements, & Awards
Despite the averages, some knee injury cases are worth much more. It depends on permanency, and other related factors. The three high permanent partial disability awards measured by the Pinkbook were $70,880, $69,075, and $57,135. The three highest final settlements were significantly higher, each nearly a quarter million or more. Specifically, $237,987, $260,000, and $275,000.
When you see a knee only case have an enormous settlement number like that, chances are there were other pre-existing injuries that factored into the claim. That’s right, unlike general personal injury cases, in workers’ comp, a serious pre-existing condition, coupled with a serious current injury can result in the subsequent injury fund being in play. This means it’s possible to be compensated for pre-existing injuries.
Knee Injuries Combined With Other Injuries
The most common couplings are knee and back injuries, followed by knee and shoulder injuries, knee and leg injuries, and then knee and ankle injuries. Knee and back together results in average awards of $18,717. Knee and shoulder coupled averages $29,506. Knee and leg is $18,009 and knee and ankle is $16,509. These are averages based on both settlements and permanent partial disability awards.
