Would you be willing to sell your thumb for $30,000. How about your right eye for $75,000, your big toe for $15,000 or your pinkie finger $12,500?
Sound crazy? Well, welcome to the world of the Georgia workers’ compensation permanent partial disability payment schedules.
Because you cannot recover anything for pain and suffering in a Georgia work injury case, every type of injury has been boiled down to a number. The permanent partial disability payment schedules sets out precisely how much you can recover if you incur a loss or loss of use to part of your body.
In the case of an amputated or permanently damaged thumb, for example, the payment schedule says that your thumb is valued at 60 weeks of work. If your average weekly wage is $500 per week (the current maximum), then you multiply $500 x 60 to get $30,000. The loss of an eye is equal to 150 weeks, the big toe is worth 30 weeks and your pinkie finger is worth 25 weeks, and so forth.
When you hear workers’ compensation lawyers talk about a PPD rating, we are referring specifically to Code Section 34-9-263 which sets out a value for various impairments. [Read more…] about Sell Your Thumb for $30,000 and Other Strange Provisions of Georgia’s Workers’ Compensation Law