Phoenixville Workers’ Comp Lawyer

Workers’ Compensation is there to cover injuries at work.  Claims through Workers’ Comp are intended to pay for all medical care for injured employees and keep them covered with replacement wages while they are unable to work.  However, this system can be difficult for workers to understand, and getting your benefits might be harder than it should be.

Our lawyers can help you file your claims, fight insurance carriers and employers who want to deny your claim, and get you the benefits you need.  In many cases, this means fighting for a negotiated Workers’ Comp settlement or for ongoing benefits, depending on your specific situation, injury, and needs.

For help with your case, contact Cardamone Law’s Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers at (267) 651-7945.

What Does Workers’ Compensation Cover for Injured Workers in Phoenixville?

Injured workers can file a Workers’ Comp claim to get injuries covered under certain circumstances.  The benefits you get will depend on your specific injury and situation, but they often involve medical coverage with an opportunity for wage loss benefits and additional “specific loss” benefits in some cases.

Qualifying Workers

Workers’ Comp covers employees only, not independent contractors.  Many workers do qualify under the legal definition of “employe” (as it is spelled in the Workers’ Comp Act), but contractors and other self-employed workers usually cannot get benefits this way.  There may also be some strange situations where employees of contractors who take on a portion of a company’s regular business might be owed Workers’ Comp coverage by the top-level employer.  Always check with a lawyer as to what your status is when it comes to Workers’ Comp benefits because these rules are not always obvious or straightforward, and some employers try to abuse these categorization rules.

Sources of Injury

Workers’ Comp is essentially a no-fault system, which takes questions of who caused the accident out of the equation in most cases.  You can claim benefits for any work injury as long as you did not cause it intentionally or cause it through illegal acts, drug use, or alcohol use.  You can still claim benefits if you were injured by a coworker, someone who does not work with you, or even if you injured yourself by accident.

Qualifying Injuries

Many kinds of injuries and conditions qualify for Workers’ Comp benefits; the main requirement for coverage is that the injury was work-related.  This means that it happened during work tasks.  If you were instead hurt on the weekend or during your lunch break or commute, it likely will not qualify.  However, always talk to our Workers’ Compensation lawyers about whether your injury qualifies as work-related or not, as there are special rules for injuries on work trips or injuries that involve repetitive stress or strain over time that might surprise you.

Medical Benefits

If you suffered any work-related injuries, your employer should pay for their treatment (usually through their Workers’ Comp insurance carrier).  This coverage should be paid whether your injury ultimately keeps you from working or not.

Wage-Loss Benefits

Benefits are paid to workers who cannot work for more than 7 days after a work-related injury – and if you are out long enough, the first 7 days of missed work are also paid for.  If the worker can return to work at the same or a different job at a limited capacity, benefits are usually paid as 2/3 of the difference in the wages you make after the injury and what you made before the injury.  If you cannot work at all, then your wage-loss benefits usually equal 2/3 of your average weekly wage (AWW) from before the accident.

There is a statewide AWW that functions as an upper limit on these weekly wage amounts.  This also helps form a floor for benefits, ensuring you get a minimum benefit of 1/2 the statewide AWW or 90% of your lost wages, whichever is higher.  In 2025, the statewide AWW is set at $1,347 per week as the maximum, meaning payments must be a minimum of whichever is higher: $673.50 or 90% of your AWW.

Specific Loss Benefits

If your injury involved permanent loss/amputation, permanent loss of function, serious facial scarring, loss of vision, or loss of hearing, then you are also entitled to a set payment based on the specific injury.  These “specific loss” benefits pay you back for the loss, with a certain number of weeks’ worth of your AWW paid for each injury, as listed in the Workers’ Comp Act.  For example, loss of an eye is worth 2/3 of your wages for 275 weeks.

Death Benefits Through Workers’ Comp in Phoenixville

The benefits above are for injured workers.  If you are instead filing a Work Comp claim for the death of a loved one at work, then your family is usually entitled to funeral and burial benefits of up to $7,000, wage-loss benefits, and coverage for the deceased’s end-of-life care related to their work injury.  The wage-loss benefits are paid at different rates depending on how many family members the wages are meant to support, with a spouse and two or more children receiving the full 2/3 benefit a living worker would receive.

Getting Workers’ Comp Benefits and Settlements in Phoenixville

When you file your initial claim with your employer and give them notice of your injury, they will often either reject your claim, deny full benefits, accept the claim on a limited basis only to deny it later, or simply ignore your claim.  If any of these situations happen, you should contact a lawyer to file your case in court.

Once we get the case before a judge, we can request full benefits and start negotiating for a settlement.  Ultimately, if your case is resolved through a settlement, it is over and you get all of the payments we negotiated, but you cannot go back and get more money later if your injury gets worse again.  With ongoing benefits, you might move back and forth between total disability and partial disability benefits if your road to recovery is not a straight line.  Our lawyers can advise you as to whether a settlement is appropriate in your case and what moves you should take next.

Call Our Workers’ Compensation Attorneys in Phoenixville, PA Today

Call (267) 651-7945 for a free review of your case with the Workers’ Comp lawyers at Cardamone Law.