A specific number of ways your TV lawyer’s office will tell you exactly how many weeks Mississippi law pays for the loss of a specific finger, hand, or arm: zero. How to tell in one phone call whether your lawyer actually knows the amputation schedule: ask him to name the exact week count for a thumb, versus a hand, versus an arm above the elbow. These are not the same number, and the difference is not small. Amputation is one of the few injuries in Mississippi workers’ compensation law with a fixed, published statutory value, which means there is almost no excuse for a lawyer, or a carrier, to get your number wrong. If you or someone you love lost a body part working in Waveland or anywhere in Hancock County, this page covers the schedule the carrier is hoping you never look up yourself.

Waveland Amputation Workers’ Comp: The Statutory Schedule The Carrier Hopes You Never Look Up

His hand is still resting on the flywheel housing of an outboard motor he’s been servicing for the better part of an hour, coworker across the marina dock not realizing anyone is still working on it, when the start switch on the dash gets hit and the flywheel turns. There is no ambiguity about what happened. There is no dispute about whether the injury is real. What there often is, in the days and weeks after an amputation, is a carrier moving fast to get a settlement signed before the injured worker, or anyone helping him, has actually looked up what Mississippi law says his specific loss is worth.

Under Miss. Code Ann. Section 71-3-17(c), Mississippi law assigns a fixed, scheduled week count to the loss of specific body parts, paid at 66-2/3% of the worker’s average weekly wage for that exact number of weeks, regardless of how quickly the worker might otherwise return to some form of work. A thumb is scheduled at 60 weeks. A first finger is 40 weeks, other fingers scaled down from there. A hand is 175 weeks. An arm is 200 weeks. A foot is 125 weeks. A leg is 175 weeks. These numbers are not negotiable, and they are not subject to a carrier’s opinion about how well you have adapted since the injury.

The Schedule Number The Carrier Hopes You Never Actually Look Up

Here’s the part the adjuster is hoping you skip right past. It’s not hidden in fine print. It’s published, in plain language, directly in the Mississippi Code, and the carrier is counting on the fact that most injured workers have never seen the actual schedule and simply accept whatever number gets offered first. A settlement offer that comes in below the statutory schedule for your specific amputation is not a negotiation. It is a carrier hoping you sign before you check. A settlement offer that comes in above the statutory minimum, factoring in additional wage-loss impact beyond the scheduled number, is the only kind of offer that should ever be treated as a genuine starting point for discussion.

Ask yourself does it matter if the hand surgeon closing your amputation site has actually performed that specific level of amputation before, or is following a general surgical outline. Ask yourself does it matter if the prosthetist fitting you for a new hand has actually fitted that specific type of prosthetic before, or is guessing at the measurements. Now ask yourself why a lawyer handling your amputation claim should get a pass on whether he has ever actually looked up, and correctly applied, the exact statutory week count for your specific loss.

What An Amputation Claim Is Actually Worth

That’s not whatever number the adjuster reads off a settlement sheet on the first phone call. That’s a fixed, statutory week count, published in the Mississippi Code, multiplied by 66-2/3% of your actual average weekly wage, plus all reasonably necessary medical treatment connected to the amputation and any prosthetic fitting. This isn’t rare. This is the standard undervaluation play on nearly every amputation claim that crosses a Gulf Coast adjuster’s desk, offering a round number that sounds significant on a phone call but falls short of what the actual published schedule requires once the real math is done.

The Waveland Amputation Attack: What Your TV Lawyer Has Never Actually Done

He has not personally calculated a scheduled amputation award using your actual average weekly wage and the correct statutory week count for your specific loss. He has never sat with a prosthetist to understand what ongoing prosthetic replacement and maintenance costs actually look like over a lifetime. He has never argued a disputed amputation classification, hand versus wrist, arm above versus below the elbow, in front of a Mississippi Workers’ Compensation administrative judge. Here’s the twist worth checking yourself. Ask his intake center to name the exact scheduled week count for your specific amputation, on the spot, without looking it up. Listen closely to how long the silence lasts.

Notice And Filing Deadlines On An Amputation Claim

You have thirty days under Miss. Code Ann. Section 71-3-35 to give your employer written notice of a work injury, and two years from the date of injury to file your claim with the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission. Notice is rarely the real issue on an amputation claim, since the injury is immediate and undeniable. The bigger risk is signing a settlement before the correct scheduled amount, and any additional benefits for disfigurement or lasting functional loss beyond the amputation itself, have been properly calculated and documented.

Pre-Existing Conditions On An Amputation Claim

A prior injury to the same limb, an old fracture, even a previous partial loss of function in the same hand or arm, does not reduce the scheduled amputation benefit owed for a new, work-related amputation. The statutory schedule pays for the loss that actually occurred on the job, and a carrier attempting to argue that some portion of your current loss predates this specific incident, when the amputation itself happened at work, faces a much harder argument than on a soft-tissue claim. That argument still deserves scrutiny from a lawyer who has tested it before, not simply accepted on the adjuster’s word.

What Benefits Are Actually Available On An Amputation Claim

A compensable amputation entitles you to the full scheduled statutory benefit for your specific loss under Section 71-3-17(c), all reasonably necessary medical treatment including surgery and prosthetic fitting, temporary total disability during your initial recovery, and vocational rehabilitation if you cannot return to your prior occupation. If the amputation results in a lasting disfigurement, an additional benefit under Section 71-3-17(24) may also apply once the one-year waiting period for disfigurement awards has run. The carrier will authorize the initial surgery. It will move quickly to settle before you have calculated the full scheduled amount you are actually owed.

The Hancock County Hearing Your TV Lawyer Has Never Once Attended

A disputed amputation claim in Waveland, whether over the correct classification, the average weekly wage calculation, or additional benefits beyond the schedule, is decided by a Mississippi Workers’ Compensation administrative judge, the same process I have handled for Hancock County clients for over thirty years. I know that hearing room because I have argued exactly this kind of dispute in it. Your TV lawyer knows the word “amputation” because it sounds serious enough for a commercial. There is a real difference between the two, and on a scheduled claim with a fixed statutory number, that difference is simply whether you get paid the full amount the law actually requires.

The Rushed Settlement The Carrier Wants Signed Before You Look Up The Schedule

You didn’t ask for an adjuster to call within days of your amputation with a settlement number already prepared, moving fast while you are still adjusting to surgery, medication, and the reality of what happened to you. You didn’t agree to have that first offer treated as a final answer rather than a starting point for a calculation the carrier already knows in detail. You didn’t sign up to have your average weekly wage calculated using a convenient shortcut instead of your actual full earnings history, including overtime and regular bonuses you consistently received before the injury. This isn’t a rare tactic reserved for weak claims. This is standard practice on nearly every amputation claim serious enough to have an obvious, undeniable statutory value, because a carrier that moves fast, before you have checked the schedule yourself, saves real money on every case that gets signed too early. A lawyer who has calculated this exact schedule before knows how to verify your true average weekly wage and make sure nothing gets left on the table.

The Cheapest Prosthetic The Carrier Can Get Away With Authorizing

You didn’t choose to have the carrier authorize the most basic, entry-level prosthetic hand available, one with limited grip function and no myoelectric capability, when a more advanced prosthetic exists that could actually let you return to real, comparable work. You didn’t agree to have “reasonably necessary” medical treatment interpreted as whatever device costs the least, rather than whatever device your treating physician and a qualified prosthetist actually recommend for your specific loss and your specific job. You didn’t sign up to fight the same battle again in a few years when that basic prosthetic wears out and the carrier tries to authorize an identical, outdated replacement instead of whatever technology has actually improved since your original injury.

This isn’t a rare disagreement between reasonable options. This is a standard cost-control tactic on nearly every amputation claim serious enough to require an ongoing prosthetic relationship, because authorizing the cheapest device that technically qualifies as treatment, rather than the device that actually restores the most function, saves the carrier real money over the entire lifetime of your claim. A lawyer who has fought this battle before knows how to get your treating physician’s specific recommendation, not just a generic prescription, in front of the carrier and, if necessary, in front of an administrative judge.

The Foster Fair Fee Guarantee On Your Amputation Claim

I do not take a fee out of your temporary total disability check. Zero dollars. Not one cent. Under the Foster Fair Fee Guarantee, you are contractually guaranteed to take home more money than I do, on every case, in writing, before we ever start. No other Hancock County workers’ compensation lawyer will put that promise on paper.

The Waveland Amputation $2,500 Double Dare

I will pay you $2,500.00 cash the day the TV lawyer whose face is on that Highway 90 billboard personally argues a Hancock County amputation classification dispute in front of a Mississippi Workers’ Compensation administrative judge, start to finish, no associate, no referral, him alone. Nobody has ever collected that money. Nobody ever will, because it has never once happened.

The full scheduled amputation benefits are set out in Miss. Code Ann. Section 71-3-17, worth reading yourself rather than accepting a summary from an adjuster.

▼ Get Your FREE Book Right Now ▼
Fill Out The Form Below And I Will Send It Immediately

Waveland Amputation Workers’ Comp: Questions Answered Straight

P.S. A TV lawyer filed a Bar complaint against me over the Foster Fair Fee Guarantee. The Mississippi Bar threw it out. The guarantee still stands, and I still take zero dollars out of your TTD check. Ask the billboard lawyer to match either promise in writing.

Everything that serves this community starts at the Waveland legal services page, and the full Waveland workers’ compensation lawyer hub covers every way a Hancock County work injury claim can go wrong.

▼ Get Your FREE Book Right Now ▼
Fill Out The Form Below And I Will Send It Immediately