Getting a Longshoremen’s Compensation Check in Mississippi
Whether you call it workers compensation or workers compensation or whatever, if you were injured while working on a boat repair, in most cases, what it is really called is a Longshore accident. Of course, in Mississippi, this usually means you were injured on the job while working at Northrop Grumman or Halter Marine in Pascagoula. What many people want to know is what is required to get a workers’ compensation check. To get one, you must be temporarily totally disabled. In other words, you must be unable to work at any job.
Insurance companies call these checks for severance benefits. Because? Because insurance companies and lawyers sometimes have a hard time speaking English! However, to get the worker’s compensation check, you must have a medical excuse. This is absolutely crucial. I recommend that you tell your doctor that your employer requires a medical excuse. Of course, your employer requires one if you are injured on the job.
In other words, your doctor must write on a prescription pad that you: (a) “cannot work until further notice”; or (b) “cannot work until next follow-up appointment” with the doctor.
Be sure to mail, fax, or email your excuse from work to the workers’ compensation insurance carrier. To make sure your workers’ compensation check keeps coming, you need to do this. If the doctor writes that “you cannot work until further notice”, then obviously you only need to get this excuse from work once. On the other hand, if the doctor notes that you “cannot work until the next follow-up appointment” with the doctor, you must get a medical excuse each time you go to the doctor. This can be irritating to the doctor as he is busy. So, if the doctor writes that you “can’t work until your next follow-up appointment” with the doctor, then I suggest you tell the doctor that you don’t want to have to bother him at every doctor visit and would rather they just write ” unable to work until further notice”.
Another option, and highly recommended, is to simply ask the doctor’s nurse to write on a prescription pad that you are not going to work until further notice. My experience is that doctors are extremely busy and have little patience for dealing with work excuses. This will take the burden off the doctor and put it on the nurse. Also, if the doctor agrees that he is off work “until further notice,” then he doesn’t have to worry about apologizing to any doctor in the future. Next, ask the nurse to have the doctor sign and date the prescription pad. Let the nurse keep the original. Ask the nurse to make two copies. One for your records and one that you give to your employer or workers’ compensation insurance company (although I strongly recommend that you give it to the insurance company, specifically, the insurance adjuster). Be sure to keep all work excuses in a folder. Organize work excuses by date.
I find this to be the best method and avoid having to deal with work excuses in the future.
Determine the amount of your Pascagoula Longshore Workers Comp Accident Check
I have already explained as you get your worker’s compensation check, that is, you must have a medical excuse. Now, I want to explain how I determine the amount of money you receive every two weeks in your workers’ compensation check. If you worked most of the year before your Longshore accident, then I determine the amount you receive in your paycheck by multiplying 300 times the average daily wage for a “six day” worker and if you are a “five day” worker. so 260 times the average daily wage. The formula is a bit more complicated than this, but this is the starting point.
The Department of Labor explains it this way: the average annual income will consist of three hundred times the average daily wage or salary of a six-day worker and two hundred and sixty times the average daily wage or salary of a five-day worker, which will have been earned in such employment during the days you were employed.
While the Department of Labor is certainly helpful, the language they use to describe how they do it can be confusing. Don’t worry, as long as you send me your W-2 from the year before your accident and all your pay stubs, I can work it out.