Legal Question in Workers Comp in New York

Re: disabled

Under New York Workers' Compensation Law, the amount of Workers' Compensation benefits awarded for on-the-job injury depends upon the degree and extent of that employee's injury, whether the injury is totally disabling or only partially disabling, and on the duration of that status, whether it is temporary or expected to be permanent.

The discussion below is based on Section 15 (in Article 2) of New York's codified Workers' Compensation Law.

Total disability is awarded 2/3 of the employee's average weekly wage for the duration of the state of total disability, i.e., as in your case, if temporary total disabled then until no longer totally disabled, if permanent total disability then permanently.

Note that a temporary disabilty (whether partial or total) can develop and progress to no disability whatsever or to either type of total disability, i.e., a temporary total disability could evolve to a permanent total disability, the ramifications of which is discussed in the last paragraph above, or to a permanent partial disability to be discussed below.

Some types of permanent partial disability injuries are awarded 2/3 of the average weekly wage but only for a limited period measured in weeks, from 312 weeks of 2/3 of the average weekly wage for loss of an arm, and less weeks for other types of permanent partial disability.

Other kinds of permanent partial disablity injuries are awarded 2/3 of the difference between the employee's pre-injury average weekly wage and the employee's wage-earning capacity after the injury for the permanent duration of that partial disability.

Similarly, temporary partial disability is awarded 2/3 of the difference between the employee's pre-injury average weekly wage and the employee's wage-earning capacity after the injury for the duration of the state of temporary partial disability.