South Carolina Workers’ Comp Laws

Being injured at work in South Carolina may entitle you to benefits and compensation. South Carolina workers’ compensation laws provide employees with medical treatment, wage replacement and disability compensation upon suffering a work-related injury or illness, and death benefits to surviving dependents. An injured employee can receive workers’ compensation benefits regardless of who is at fault for the injury.

In exchange for receiving workers’ compensation benefits, an employee is barred from bringing a civil action against the employer for damages (except if an intentional tort occurs). To discuss your benefits please contact our Columbia South Carolina workers compensation lawyers.

Filing A Workers’ Compensation Claim In South Carolina

Upon sustaining a work-related injury or illness, you should notify your employer immediately. You can provide notice about the injury to your first-line supervisor, manager, or human resource office. Let your employer know that you need medical treatment. Once you notify your employer about the injury, they will contact their insurance carrier. The carrier will evaluate your claim and determine if you are eligible to receive compensation under New Jersey workers’ compensation laws.

If your claim is eligible, they will direct you to continue receiving medical care from their prescribed physician. If medical treatment for your injury extends beyond 7 days, you will be eligible to receive temporary disability benefits. If your injury is permanent, you may be eligible to receive permanent partial or total disability benefits.

Handling Denied Workers’ Compensation Claims In S.C.

In the event you employer’s insurer denies your workers’ compensation claim, you may file a formal Claim Petition or an Application for an Informal Hearing with the Division of Workers’ Compensation. Upon filing your claim, the case will be assigned to a local judge. You can file a claim petition on your own behalf (pro se) or retain an attorney to do it for you. It is best to hire an experienced workers’ compensation attorney to represent you at the hearing. Issues that may be discussed may consists of the compensability of the claim, the extent of medical treatment needed, and the payment of disability benefits. The insurance carrier will provide a legal defense on behalf of the insured employer.

Informal hearings are heard as an alternative to holding lengthy formal litigation. During such hearings, issues regarding the award of temporary benefits, medical treatment and permanency benefits can be addressed.

South Carolina Workers’ Compensation Benefits

Employees or their dependents may be eligible for the following workers’ compensation benefits:

1. Medical Benefits – This type of benefit includes compensation for medical treatment, prescriptions, and hospitalization services an employee incurs.

2. Temporary Total Disability Benefits – This type of benefit is awarded to employees who are disabled for more than 7 days.

3. Permanent Partial Disability Benefits – This type of benefit is awarded to employees who suffer a partial permanent disability which may consists of the loss of a leg, arm, finger, eye, or toe etc.

4. Permanent Total Disability Benefits – This type of benefit is awarded in the event an employee is no longer able to work in the same pre-injury capacity as a result of the injury. An employee will be compensated at 70% of his average weekly wage for 405 weeks.

5. Death Benefits – Death benefits are awarded to surviving dependents to compensate them for the financial loss they incur arising from the employee’s death.

6. Survival Benefits

7. Lost wage benefits and compensation.

The type of benefits you may be able to receive will depend on the nature of your injury and its treatment. Contact our Columbia South Carolina workers compensation lawyers for more information about your workers’ compensation rights under SC workers comp law and the legal options you may have in pursuing a claim.

The South Carolina Workers’ Compensation laws are very unique and can be complex and confusing to an injured workers In fact, I would argue that it has its own language. Frequently lawyers will ask do you speak comp? It has forms, there are commissioners not judges, there is wage replacement not lost wages, and so on. Before you can know how much your case is worth you must have a little background as to the system itself.

South Carolina Workers' Comp Designed to Make You Whole Not Rich

Workers’ Compensation in South Carolina is designed to make you whole from a South Carolina on the job injury. The system really cannot take away the injury but it can provide you with medical treatment and other benefits. Once you have been released from medical care you are often given an impairment rating to a particular body part.

So if you are given a 10% to the arm, that means you have 90% good arm. That 10% is used as part of a formula to determine the value of your comp claim.

Body Parts Have Specific Values

The one thing people cannot get over is how each body part is given a certain value of weeks. The easiest way to think about this is that if you lost the entire body part then it is worth X number of weeks. For example a total loss of the arm is worth 220 weeks. Some of the more common weeks and body parts are:

back 300 weeks
arm 220 weeks
hand 185 weeks

leg 195 weeks
foot 140 weeks
shoulder 300 weeks
hip 280 weeks
and so on.

Don't Leave Money on the Table

While this is the general formula, if you follow only this formula or if you go at it alone, you “could” leave money on the table. Impairment is often converted to disability and that rating my go up. Whenever we represent an injured worker, we always verify the average weekly wage. Beyond that though, what happens when you have more than one body part? What happens when you cannot go back to work?

What happens if the doctor says you are entitled to lifetime medical treatment? There are endless questions that arise in workers comp claims and an experienced Columbia, South Carolina workers comp lawyer can answer those questions.

Contact Our South Carolina Workers' Comp Attorneys

Please call our team of Columbia South Carolina workers compensation lawyers. We offer free consultations and charge no fees if we do not recover for you.

Our Columbia SC work comp attorneys proudly serve all South Carolina including Aiken, Anderson, Clemson, Columbia, Greenville, Laurens, Lexington, Newberry, Sumter & Spartanburg, SC.