Sometimes you don't want to settle your case
An injured worker writes:
I am 27 years old and i got hurt on the job in 2007 i have had 2 surgeries 1 was a to clean bone spurs in left shoulder and 2 was a slap repair or pec transfer my long thoracic nerve denerved also and now they sent me to school because because i am not able to do my job any more i made 31.55 hour and now they are talking settlement roughly what kind of money should i be looking at.
Now I can't tell this guy what his case is worth without seeing his medical records and knowing what type of job he can get. But I would probably tell not to settle right now for two reasons:
1. As mentioned, we don't know how much he can earn so assuming he suffers a big wage loss, there is no way to tell exactly what the change in his earning power will be.
2. More importantly, for his health, it probably makes sense to go to trial and keep his medical rights open for life. He likely will have future problems with his arm and if he settles his case he will not be able to get medical treatment at the insurance company's expense. He can still get paid, but he protects his health by going to trial.
Before you settle any case I suggest that you think long term about how you would pay for medical care in five years if your problem started to act up again. If you don't have a good answer then you probably shouldn't close out your medical rights by settling.
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