Testimonials

“Divorce is stressful. Amber and staff took that factor right out of the equation. I had peace of mind.”

–Karen Mayo, former client

“I felt your office did everything to get the best settlement you could get for me.”

–Cornelius Carroll, former client

“Very pleasant and caring atmosphere. Everyone in the office was very kind … and genuinely cared about our problem and situation.”

–Terry and Ashley Plisch, former clients

“Amber made me feel better about the reason that I needed her services – that it wasn’t just my fault … She was very supportive to me during a very stressful period of my life.”

–Former client who asked to remain Anonymous

“I would highly recommend Amber St. John to friends, family members and clients. Amber did a wonderful job for me and never gave up. No matter if I had to cry, scream or complain, she was always there for me. She is a great attorney and a very caring person.”

–Kim Farris, former client

“I was looking through the phone book and I called. After other calls to other lawyers – Amber was the nicest one and more informative.”

“It felt very nice to know that I could call with anything and they always knew who I was and what my case was about. It was never…’And who are you again, what’s your case again.’”

–Darci, former client

Tennessee Personal Injury Cases

Are you wondering what your next step should be if you’ve been injured in an accident? This is a very important decision for you and it’s important to consider all of your options.

4 Reasons to Get a Lawyer in a Personal Injury Case

1. Your Time is ValuableProtecting your rights takes time. Do you have time to analyze your situation, obtain an accident report or other paperwork, find and photograph wrecked cars, consider whether to hire an accident reconstructionist, find one, interview people . . . The list of things that might need done goes on and on! You do something that you’re good at every day. Chances are it isn’t filing lawsuits or investigating accidents and injuries. Meanwhile, if you’ve been hurt, you need to focus on getting well. Why not spend what little free time you have now doing what you do best, or better yet, doing what you really enjoy most?

2. You Should Get What You DeserveWhy risk shortchanging yourself and your family? You’ll never know what could have been if you don’t investigate the possibilities.

3. You Can Even the Playing FieldInsurance companies succeed when they pay out low claims — less than they should have anticipated — and thereby maximize profits for their shareholders. They’ve put together years of research and resources to do that. Shouldn’t you use the resources available to you?

4. Even if It’s Not Me, It Usually Beats Going It Alone
Statistics speak louder than words. A study by the Insurance Research Council suggested that when hurt people get lawyers, on average, they put more money in their pockets. This is no guarantee of future results, but starts to explain why the insurance company would probably really rather that you not get an attorney. There are other advantages to having a lawyer as well. A lawyer doesn’t just stop at negotiating with the insurance company; he or she can negotiate with doctors and health insurers on the amount of money you need to pay back to them. That is just a part of what a lawyer is doing for you behind the scenes — things you might not accomplish or even know to try for yourself.

My Promise to You
Although this section is called “4 Reasons Why You Should Get a Lawyer,” there may be situations where a lawyer won’t improve your situation. If my evaluation of your case makes me conclude that I can’t help you, I promise to let you know up front as part of your case evaluation or as soon as that’s evident to me. While no lawyer can promise you specific results, I can promise to evaluate your case to the best of my ability, given the information you provide and I discover. You deserve that from any lawyer you talk to.

Tennessee Personal Injury Settlements

If you’ve suffered a personal injury, you are probably wondering what to expect in terms of settlement. This is a question that you have to discuss with an attorney individually. Providing information here on settlements and verdicts in other cases should not give you any expectations of results in your own case.

The factors involved in settlement value of a case are numerous. For example, in an automobile accident, the factors that the insurance company considers relevant may include property damage, medical treatment and expenses, permanent impairment rating (if applicable), and lost wages. Every case is different, but these are the factors adjusters often consider.

Personal injury settlement data is available from several different sources. We will be glad to discuss our own experience with you in conjunction with reviewing your case.

Verdict data is a topic closely related to settlement data.

What is the difference between a settlement and a verdict? Settlement means that the parties agree to the outcome. Verdict means that a judge or jury tells the parties what the outcome will be. Settlement can happen before, during or after a trial. Verdicts happen after trials, and can be upheld or set aside by appeals courts.

Local verdict data can be found for Nashville, TN, in the Rooker Report. You can find statewide jury verdict data at the Tennessee Juvy Verdict Reporter.

Tennessee workers compensation Benefit Review Conferences

If you have a workers compensation claim and cannot reach an agreement as far as the amount of the lump sum settlement, you may need to attend a workers compensation Benefit Review Conference (BRC) with your lawyer.

BRCs are held at the appropriate workers compensation office of the Tennessee Department of Labor.

A BRC is a mediation, or informal attempt at settlement before trial. Typically the employee and his or her attorney sits in one room and the defense attorney or adjuster sits in the other room. A workers compensation specialist with the State of Tennessee will act as the mediator, attempting to talk to both sides and find a resolution.

At the beginning of the BRC, the workers compensation specialist will go over the employee’s rights with the employee and have him or her sign off that they understand their rights. This includes telling the employee that they might get more or less if they went before a judge to have their case decided.

If you cannot reach an agreement as to how much your workers compensation claim is worth, an “impasse” is declared by the workers compensation specialist, and you can file a lawsuit.

If you do reach an agreement as to how much your workers compensation claim is worth, then either the specialist can approve the settlement, or your attorney may recommend scheduling the workers comp settlement in front of the local judge.

Typically the settlement check is not available the day of the BRC, unless the employer is self-insured or the claim value is very small. The workers compensation settlement check is made out to the attorney and the employee. The employee signs the check and the lawyer puts the settlement funds in the law office trust account. Once the check has cleared, the employee gets their check from the trust account.

Tennessee Workers Compensation Impairment Ratings

In Tennessee, as in most states, workers compensation cases are valued based in part on the impairment rating assigned to the injury. The workers compensation doctor will assign an impairment rating (if one applies) when you reach “MMI” or maximum medical improvement. You may still get treatment after this point, but in the doctor’s judgment, you have reached a point where you are appropriate to be rated.

Doctors follow the rules in a book, the AMA Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment, when deciding whether you are at MMI and what your impairment rating will be. The most recent edition of the book is the Sixth; it applies in Tennessee to workers compensation injuries on January 1, 2008, and later. The AMA Guides defines MMI as “a status where patients are as good as they are going to be from the medical and surgical treatment available to them.” (Section 2.5e, page 26). Ratings may only be performed after MMI. (Section 2.3c, page 24).

Workers compensation impairment ratings vary greatly depending on the type of injury. Injuries to arms and legs are calculated based on “upper extremity” and “lower extremity” percentages. Injuries to hands and feet are based on hands and feet. Injuries to the neck, back, and shoulders are calculated as “body as a whole” injuries. Due to the involvment of “weeks” in the workers compensation lump sum formula, it matters a great deal whether the injury is to an extremity or the body as a whole when calculating the lump sum.

The idea of the impairment rating is to assign a number to a certain type of injury, so that everyone with the same type of injury would receive the same impairment rating. It is the government’s attempt to turn things that are inherently different into something that can be treated uniformly for the sake of fairness. In workers compensation, regardless of your station in life, you should receive the same impairment rating as anyone else with the same type of injuries, symptoms, and outcomes.

The impairment rating quantifies how much your body has been changed by the injury. If you have surgery, then you’ve been cut open and your body has been changed more than someone who has not had surgery. So, you will usually have a higher impairment rating, unless the outcome of the surgery leaves you with no symptoms whatsoever, which doesn’t happen very often.

Excluding catastrophic cases, the highest ratings in workers compensation cases tend to come from back injuries. Shoulder injuries are probably next in line. Amputations are typically not valued proportionately in my personal opinion. However, the most undervalued workers compensation claim is one where no impairment rating applies: an on-the-job death of an employee with no dependents is worth just over twenty thousand dollars in Tennessee workers compensation law. That makes the valuation for amputations look generous.

How much are Tennessee workers comp cases worth?

The final lump sum value of a workers compensation claim depends on a number of factors in Tennessee, most of which are purely mathematical. 

How much your workers compensation case is worth is going to depend on how badly you were injured, whether you can or do still work, and how much you made during the year before the accident with that employer.

If you quit or get fired “for cause” during your case, then your claim will be worth less than if you were unable to work or laid off.

In the end, the lump sum is based on a math formula.  The components of the math formula are:

• the employee’s PTD (permanent total disability) rate, generally two-thirds of their 52 week average wage;
• the impairment rating (a percentage) assigned by the treating physician and/or the independent medical examiner;
• a number of weeks (400 for a body-as-a-whole injury, 200 for a leg or arm injury, etc.);
• a multiplier (capped at 1.5 when an employee returns to work at their pre-injury wage, gets fired for cause or quits; can be higher depending on education, training, age, etc., when an employee does not return to work after their injury).

Assuming the PTD rate has been calculated accurately, the two things that a workers compensation attorney can generally affect in the formula are the impairment rating and the multiplier.  The attorney increases the impairment rating by sending the employee to an independent doctor.  Depending upon the rating given by the treating physician this may or may not be advisable in any given case.  The multiplier is subject to negotiation based upon what experience has taught the attorney and the adjuster/defense attorney is likely to happen in court if a trial were to take place.

How Tennessee workers compensation claims work

Workers compensation claims are usually based on the impairment rating assigned by the treating physician or an independent examiner.

Not every work injury will result in a permanent impairment. Permanent impairment ratings are based on the anatomical change to the body caused by the injury. If your body heals completely without permanent change, then you may not receive an impairment rating.

In your workers compensation claim, you are entitled to receive payment for travel to and from your doctor appointments if the distance you must travel exceeds fifteen miles each way. We assist our client in making claims for these amounts by forwarding the travel information to the workers compensation adjuster.

Workers’ compensation law requires employers to provide medical treatment for injuries incurred on the job regardless of whose fault the injury is. As a trade-off, the injured employee loses the right to sue for pain and suffering, if the injury is compensable under workers compensation. This is known as the “exclusive remedy” provision. You should be given a list of three doctors to choose one for treatment.

If you miss more than 7 days of work, you are eligible to receive payment for your lost time from work at the rate of two-thirds of your 52-week average weekly wage. This is known as your TTD rate. You are paid for the first 7 days after you miss 14 days. TTD amounts are capped for high income employees. We frequently assist our clients when they are having problems receiving their TTD checks.

When you are released by the treating doctor, you are at Maximum Medical Improvemen (MMI). At that time the doctor will assess the anatomical change to your body caused by the injury and assign you an Impairment Rating. You have the right to have your own doctor assign an impairment rating as well. This is called an Independent Medical Exam (IME).

The lump sum settlement that some workers get at the end of a workers compensation claim is based upon their Impairment Rating, their compensation rate, the number of weeks assigned by workers compensation law to that type of injury, and a multiplier. The multiplier is capped at a lower rate if you return to work at the same rate of pay or if you quit your job.

We assist our workers compensation clients with their permanent injury award by referring them for an Independent Medical Exam, when appropriate, and by negotiating for a higher multiplier to be assigned to their case. When necessary, we file for a Benefit Review Conference (BRC) with the Department of Labor. We may file a lawsuit in some workers compensation cases.