Q: I had two Carpal Tunnel releases in less than a year. The first doctor that Worker's comp set me to, did not do the
release properly. My new Doctor had to do a second release 10 months later. Still recovering. Is it reasonable to have my lawyer ask to settle at sixty thousand, and negotiate down to forty thousand? Before second surgery, insurance company was having my lawyer call me to give them a number to settle. I refused until my hand was fixed.
A:
I can't tell from these facts. Getting two surgeries gets you $0.00 if you fully recover, so getting repeat surgeries 10 months apart just means your attorney let an incompentent doctor slice on your twice.
There is zero 'pain & suffering' in Workers Comp, so there are no 'brownie points' for having surgeries.
It's your Activities of Daily Living that are cut off that gets you an award. If you can use you hand for everything you like to do, and there's no permanent pain and no grip loss and no tingling and no lost range of motion, maybe $40,000 is okay.
But if you are having left-over pain and tingling, if there is any loss of sensation, if you drop things, if you can't chop veggies in the kitchen because you slice yourself up now, if you cant do dishes and you can't fold laundry because you lose most of your fine gripping, if you fall behind at work because you are slow on the keyboard or you can't push-pull like you need to , then no, $40,000 is not enough.
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