Thumb Injury Cases in Workers’ Compensation

How Much is a Thumb Injury Worth?

A completely incapacitated thumb – either amputated or just completely not working – is worth 100 weeks of pay at a rate of – probably – somewhere between $300 and $350 per week.  This means $30,000 to $35,000 as a ballpark figure.  Does that seem entirely too low?  It is!  Workers’ compensation simply does not pay enough money to the injured worker.  A legitimately hurt worker is never pleased with the final amount of compensation at the end of the case.

It’s important, in a workers’ compensation case, to determine if there is a “third-party” – not the employer, not the injured worker – who can be sued.  Lawsuits are typically worth more than workers’ comp cases if someone else is at fault.  Make sure to speak to your workers’ compensation lawyer about this issue.

Even worse, generally, thumb injury cases aren’t worth anywhere near that $30,000 figure.  This is good and bad though – the reason thumb injuries aren’t worth the full 100 weeks is because the injured worker still has use of the thumb.

Value of Thumb Injuries According to the Comp Pinkbook

According to Maryland’s Comp Pinkbook – a study of 284,330 Maryland workers’ comp claims – the average disablement in a thumb injury was 18.11%.  This means that once the injured worker was finished treating the thumb injury and they had reached Maximum Medical Improvement (ie. he or she was as good as he or she was going to get), the thumb was 18% disabled.  Thought of another way – they still had 82% use of the thumb.

What Does that Mean in Dollars?

• The average thumb injury case was worth $5,419 if it was permanent partial disability
• The average final settlement for a thumb injury was $9,179

It’s important to understand that these are just averages.  The averages are based on an enormous study of Maryland comp claims, but these are still just averages.  Your comp case could be worth significantly more or less depending on your facts and who your comp attorney is.

How Common are on-the-job Thumb Injuries?

Thumb injuries are relatively commonplace, especially in jobs like construction, heavy equipment, movers, and medical professionals.  Thumb injuries can certainly happen to any worker in any field.  Thumb injuries were the 20th most common workers’ comp injury in Maryland according to the Pinkbook.  There were 209 total settlements (cases concluded) in a 1.5 year period.