Without exception, in all of the workers’ compensation cases that our office handles, the client ultimately wants to know the answer to one question concerning his or her case, and that is "How much money am I going to receive?" In South Carolina, the Workers’ Compensation Act generally provides for the following benefits when you are injured on the job; first, if your injury is serious enough to keep you out of work for more than seven (7) days, then you are entitled to what the law refers to as "temporary total disability benefits." However, an injured worker is not entitled to begin receiving that benefit until he or she has been out of work for a period in excess of fourteen (14) days; then the benefits must be paid retroactively from the first day of work missed. Temporary total benefits are paid on a weekly basis and the amount that the injured worker receives is based upon two-thirds (2/3) of his or her average weekly wage.

The workers’ compensation law provides for the payment of the injured worker's medical expenses. During the period that a workers’ compensation claim is being decided or investigated, an authorized medical provider or physician is not entitled to bill the injured worker, but must directly bill the employer’s workers’ compensation carrier. If you receive a bill while we are handling your workers’ compensation case for you, you should bring the bill to our office, at which time we will write the medical provider and instruct them to bill the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier or, if the employer is self insured, bill the employer directly. South Carolina law provides that a medical provider who violates this rule after being put on written notice can be fined.

Disability benefits are generally awarded for either permanent/partial disability where the injury is serious enough to cause the loss of use of a specific part of the body; for example, a 20% disability to the injured worker's back or a permanent/partial loss of earning capacity. Generally, to recover for a permanent/partial loss of earning capacity, an injury must affect more than one part of the body and render the employee unable to earn the same amount of money that he or she did before the injury.

The Workers’ Compensation Act also allows an injured employee to recover for total disability. Total disability is defined "the incapacity to earn wages, which the employee was receiving at the time of the injury in the same or any other employment." Unlike specific disability, total disability is purely a wage loss question. Complete helplessness is not required. The accepted test for total disability is inability to perform services other than those that are "so limited in quality, dependability, or quantity that a reasonably stable market for them does not exist."

The Workers’ Compensation Commissioner is not limited to the rating assigned by the doctor for the purpose of determining the employee’s disability. Frequently, attorneys are able to prove to the Workers’ Compensation Commissioner or the insurance adjuster that the employee should be entitled to recover more money than the impairment rating assigned by the doctor allows.