The damages that someone is entitled to in a workers’ compensation case will vary depending upon their injury and how their insurance company handles their claim.

We asked Charles Surrano, an Arizona attorney and member of the Advocate Law Group network with 30 years experience who specializes in bad faith litigation, disability claims against insurance companies, to tell us what damages someone is entitled to in the traditional court system (which is available to Arizona residents) and the workers’ compensation system through the Industrial Commission. Here’s what he had to say:

Your damages are severely limited in workers’ compensation cases. You’re entitled to get medical treatment and care. You’re entitled to a portion of your monthly wage. You may be entitled to a small lump sum settlement for a disability if you lose your arm or something. These are small amounts of money for the injuries you actually sustain. However, if you took the claim outside of the Industrial Commission and compared it to what juries award people who have lost an arm; it’s nothing like what the schedule of benefits provides at the Industrial Commission.

When you bring a bad faith case, you’re entitled to whatever damages you’ve sustained by virtue of the wrongful denial of benefits. So, if you haven’t got the medical treatment you needed and you’ve had to hire a doctor on your own to get that medical treatment, you’d be entitled to the bills that you incurred for the medical treatment and possibly the pain and suffering that you’ve endured because of the delay or denial of the medical treatment.

Why the traditional system may provide more options

Surrano thinks that the traditional court system provides his clients with more options. He continued, “You may also be entitled to damages for emotional distress and consequential damages including the financial impact of being cut off from any income. People have mortgages to pay, they have to put food on the table every month and they have credit cards and credit reports to worry about. On top of that, punitive damages might also be available in certain cases. There are no statutory caps on damages when you file a common law bad faith case. However, there are caps and limitations on what you can get strictly through workers’ compensation at the Industrial Commission.”