Work Injury Settlement Calculator

How the Estimator Handles Two Different Claim Paths

Workers' compensation benefits follow state-defined formulas. The estimator takes your pre-injury average weekly wage and applies the standard two-thirds rate for temporary disability, subject to a general maximum, to show what ongoing benefit payments might look like during your recovery period. For permanent disability, it uses your impairment rating to estimate a range based on typical state schedules. These are approximations because the exact formulas, maximums, and schedules differ by state.

If a third party contributed to your injury, the estimator also produces a separate range using the personal injury multiplier method. You enter your total medical costs, lost wages, and injury severity, and the tool applies a multiplier of 1.5 to 5 to estimate the combined economic and non-economic value of the third-party claim. The two paths operate independently and can run simultaneously, which is why the estimator shows both.

Workers Comp Benefits: What the Formulas Cover

Temporary total disability benefits replace a portion of your wages while you are unable to work at all. The rate is typically about two-thirds of your average weekly wage, but your state's maximum caps the payment regardless of your actual wage. These benefits continue until you return to work or reach maximum medical improvement.

Permanent partial disability compensates for lasting impairment. A physician assigns an impairment rating as a percentage of whole-person or scheduled-body-part function. The state's schedule converts that rating into a benefit amount. Permanent total disability, for injuries that prevent all gainful employment, provides ongoing payments that may last years or a lifetime. Medical treatment costs are covered separately and are not subject to the wage-replacement calculations. The estimator presents ranges for the wage-replacement components because those are the values most relevant to settlement discussions.

Third-Party Claims: When Higher Recovery Is Available

Workers' compensation is the exclusive remedy against your employer, but if someone other than your employer or a coworker caused or contributed to your injury, you can pursue a third-party personal injury claim alongside the workers' comp case. Third parties include equipment manufacturers whose defective products caused the injury, subcontractors on a shared job site, property owners who maintained unsafe conditions, and drivers of vehicles not operated by your employer.

A third-party claim opens access to damages workers' comp does not provide: full lost wages instead of two-thirds, pain and suffering, emotional distress, and loss of enjoyment of life. The multiplier method applies the same way it does in any personal injury case, with the multiplier scaled to the severity and permanence of the injury. The potential recovery from a third-party claim can substantially exceed the workers' comp benefits, which is why identifying third-party liability early in the process is so consequential.

Subrogation and How It Affects Your Net Recovery

When both claims proceed simultaneously, the workers' comp insurer holds a subrogation right. This means the insurer can seek reimbursement of the benefits it paid from your third-party settlement or verdict. If workers' comp paid $40,000 in benefits and your third-party case settles, the comp insurer can claim a portion of the settlement to recover what it spent.

Your attorney negotiates the subrogation lien as part of the third-party resolution. Some states reduce the lien by a proportional share of attorney fees and litigation costs. Others allow lien negotiation based on the strength of the case and the size of the recovery relative to the total claimed damages. The net effect is that your third-party take-home is reduced by the subrogation amount, but even after the reduction, the combined recovery from both paths typically exceeds what either path would produce alone. The estimator does not calculate subrogation because the amounts are case-specific and subject to negotiation.

Understanding the subrogation dynamic before your case reaches the settlement stage allows you and your attorney to plan for it. If you know the workers' comp insurer has paid $50,000 in benefits, the third-party settlement must be large enough to cover the subrogation claim, attorney fees, and expenses while still leaving you with a meaningful net recovery. An attorney who manages both tracks accounts for this from the start and sets a settlement target that produces an acceptable result after all deductions.

This site is an independent information resource, not a law firm. Nothing here constitutes legal advice. Consult a licensed attorney in your state for guidance on your workplace injury.