Mendenhall Average Weekly Wage Disputes Lawyer

A Mendenhall average weekly wage disputes workers comp lawyer search almost always means one of two things just happened, an injury, or a denial letter. Either way, the clock is already running. Every single disability payment on your claim, temporary or permanent, flows from one number, your average weekly wage, and if that number is calculated wrong at the start, every payment that follows is wrong too.

Mississippi Law On Average Weekly Wage Calculations

Miss. Code Ann. Section 71-3-3(k) defines wages broadly for average weekly wage purposes, including overtime, second jobs, seasonal and irregular schedules, tips and gratuities, and fringe benefits like employer-provided housing or a vehicle, all of which count toward the wage figure that controls every disability payment for the life of the claim. This is not a narrow, technical definition. It is meant to capture a worker’s real, total economic benefit from employment, not just a base hourly rate stripped of everything else that made up his actual weekly income.

A Simpson County Industrial Park Worker With A Second Job The Insurance Company Ignores

Picture a line worker at the Simpson County Industrial Park who also works a second part time job on weekends, income that genuinely supports his household alongside his primary job. When he is injured at the Industrial Park, the insurance company calculates his average weekly wage using only his primary job’s pay records, entirely ignoring the second income Section 71-3-3(k) requires be counted. His actual disability payment ends up calculated on a fraction of his real total earnings, understating every single check for the life of the claim. Would you let your hairdresser file your taxes? Then why let an advertiser file your workers comp claim.

Your TV Lawyer Has Never Requested Commission Review Of An Administrative Judge’s Ruling.

When an Administrative Judge at the Simpson County Courthouse on Court Avenue rules on a contested average weekly wage calculation, and that ruling still understates the true wage, the next step is Commission review of that ruling. The TV lawyer running commercials during the evening news has never requested Commission review of an Administrative Judge’s ruling, in this courthouse or any other, because his business model treats an initial ruling as the end of the road rather than one stage in a process that may need to continue. A worker whose entire disability payment depends on getting the wage calculation right deserves a lawyer who will pursue every available stage of review, not one who stops at the first ruling regardless of whether it was actually correct.

Documenting Every Source Of Wages For A Complete Calculation

A complete average weekly wage calculation requires gathering pay records from every genuine wage source, a primary job, a second job, overtime records, tip declarations, and any fringe benefits like employer-provided housing or a vehicle, then presenting all of it together rather than letting the insurance company calculate from whichever single, incomplete record happens to be easiest to obtain. A secretary who accepts the insurance company’s payroll summary without independently verifying every wage source Section 71-3-3(k) actually counts is letting an incomplete number define the value of the entire claim.

Notice And Filing Deadlines Alongside A Wage Dispute

Section 71-3-35’s thirty day notice and two year filing deadlines apply to the underlying claim regardless of how the average weekly wage ultimately gets calculated. A worker consumed by fighting over the correct wage figure can lose track of these underlying deadlines if the claim itself was never properly filed with the Commission. A TV lawyer’s secretary who focuses only on the wage dispute without confirming the basic filing requirements were met is gambling with the entire claim over a narrower calculation fight.

The TV Lawyer’s Fee Betrayal On A Wage Calculation Dispute

A claim requiring a complete, multi-source wage calculation is exactly the file a settlement mill wants calculated using whichever single record is easiest to grab. There is the standard fee. Then a fee for reviewing the primary payroll records. Then a fee for gathering the second job or tip records, if anyone bothers at all. Then a fee for reviewing that fee. Then, on the biggest files, an invented expense line large enough to fund the vacation home in Aspen, a home the underpaid worker will never see while his own disability payment gets calculated on a fraction of his true income for the rest of the claim. Nobody prints a percentage on the settlement sheet, because a percentage would let you do the math yourself before it is too late. I take a different approach entirely. I take $0.00 in fees from your temporary total disability check, no fee ever comes out of that specific check, on any case, and I would invite you to try getting that same promise in writing from a TV lawyer.

Every Mendenhall average weekly wage dispute I handle is covered by the Foster Fair Fee Guarantee, a written promise made before a single form gets signed that you walk away with more money than I do in fees. The Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission, the official state agency that administers Mississippi workers compensation claims, publishes the forms and wage calculation rules that govern exactly this kind of dispute.

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Ask Yourself Whether Your TV Lawyer Has Ever Actually Built A Complete Wage Calculation

Ask yourself does it matter if the accountant reconstructing your true weekly income has actually handled multiple income sources before, not just one paystub, before you trust the total. Ask yourself does it matter if the appraiser valuing your home has actually accounted for the guest house out back, not just the main structure, before you trust the number. Ask yourself does it matter if the lawyer pursuing Commission review of a wage ruling has actually done it before, not just advertised for one, before you let them fight for the correct number. The TV lawyer running commercials during the evening news has never argued a contested average weekly wage calculation involving a second job or tip income. He has never pursued Commission review after an Administrative Judge’s wage ruling still understated the true figure. He has never sat with a worker explaining that overtime, tips, and fringe benefits all count toward the number that controls every future payment.

Here is the part the adjuster is hoping you never read. It is not buried in fine print. It is not some secret clause. It is sitting right there in Section 71-3-3(k), in plain English, and the insurance company is counting on the fact that you have never opened it. A properly calculated average weekly wage reflecting every genuine income source is not a number a settlement mill fights to establish, because establishing it means gathering complete, multi-source payroll documentation instead of closing the file this month. This is not rare. This is what happens on nearly every wage calculation file that comes through a volume shop. Every time. Same play, different name at the top of the folder. Whether your TV lawyer holds a Mississippi Bar license at all is a fact you can check yourself at the Mississippi Bar’s public attorney search in about a minute, and the courtroom where a wage calculation actually gets argued is exactly where his media budget stops mattering.

Frequently Asked Questions About Mendenhall Average Weekly Wage Disputes

P.S. The insurance company already calculated your Mendenhall average weekly wage using an incomplete picture of your real earnings, before you ever spoke to anyone. Before you accept it, get the FREE book and find out what the adjuster is counting on you never learning about every wage source Section 71-3-3(k) actually counts.

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Fill Out The Form Below And I Will Send It Immediately