Louisiana Permanent Partial Disability Benefits
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC represents injured workers across Louisiana and Mississippi, and a large share of the Louisiana clients we meet are people who have healed as much as they are going to and are now being told to go back to work. That moment is when Louisiana permanent partial disability benefits come into play. Your doctor says you have reached maximum medical improvement, but your shoulder will never lift like it did, your back will not tolerate the lifting your job demands, or your knee has lost motion for good. The question is what the law owes you for the part of your body that did not come back.
The answer is rarely a single number from a single schedule. Louisiana sorts permanent partial disability into different categories, and the category your injury lands in controls how much you receive, how long it is paid, and whether the insurer can fold it into a lump-sum settlement. Adjusters know this, and the first benefit calculation you see is often the one most favorable to the carrier.
Below we walk through how these benefits work in Louisiana, how the categories differ, what the insurance company tends to argue, and what you should be doing right now to protect a claim that has reached the permanent stage.
How Louisiana Treats Permanent Partial Disability
Louisiana’s workers’ compensation system pays wage-loss benefits in several forms, and permanent partial disability sits in the middle of that spectrum. It applies when a work injury leaves you with a lasting impairment but does not take away your ability to work altogether. Temporary total disability covers the healing period when you cannot work at all. Permanent total disability applies when you can never return to any gainful employment. Permanent partial disability covers the large middle ground: people who can still work in some capacity, but not the way they did before.
That middle ground splits into two tracks that confuse many injured workers. One track compensates specific losses, such as the loss of use of a body part, based on a statutory schedule. The other track, supplemental earnings benefits, replaces part of the income you lose when your injury keeps you from earning what you earned before. A single claim can involve one track, the other, or a fight over which one applies.
Supplemental earnings benefits are the track most workers end up living on. They are set at two-thirds of the difference between what you earned at the time of injury and what you are earning, or are able to earn, after it, and they apply when your injury prevents you from earning ninety percent or more of your pre-injury wages. Those benefits can continue until you are released to full duty, you are back to earning your old wages, or you reach the 520-week ceiling. Weeks of temporary total disability you already received count toward that 520.
The weekly dollar limits on all of these benefits are tied to the date of your accident and are set each year based on the statewide average weekly wage. They are fixed by the accident date and are not adjusted afterward, which is one reason the date on your accident report matters more than people expect.
Why Choose Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe for a Permanent Partial Disability Claim
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is a workers’ compensation firm that serves injured workers throughout Louisiana, from South Louisiana communities like New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles to Shreveport and north Louisiana, as well as across Mississippi. Our attorneys bring over 75 years of combined experience to claims that have been denied, delayed, or cut off, and the firm has recovered more than $100 million in settlements for clients.
Brad Baskin and Jennifer Priebe, both partners, have been recognized by Best Lawyers, Super Lawyers, and The National Trial Lawyers, and the firm was ranked by Best Law Firms in 2026 for Workers’ Compensation Law, Claimants, in Jackson. Andrew Rueff has successfully tried dozens of jury and bench trials to verdict, which matters when an insurer refuses to be reasonable. Keaton Belk and Erin Heimlicher round out the attorney team.
Permanent partial disability cases are won on medical evidence and work history, and our results reflect that kind of case. We secured $685,000 for a surgical tech with a lower back injury, $600,000 for a construction worker with a complex back injury, $385,000 for a project manager injured when he was struck in his work vehicle, and $221,000 for a land-based oil rig worker with severe burns. Smaller outcomes matter too, including shoulder, knee, neck, and hip cases that resolved for amounts ranging from the mid five figures into the low six figures. Clients consistently tell us they felt heard, that the team was easy to work with, and that their attorney stood up to the insurance company at every step.
There is no fee unless we recover benefits for you, consultations are free, and the firm advances the costs of your case. Attorney fees in comp cases are limited and approved under state law. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, and we speak Spanish.
Injuries That Commonly Lead to Permanent Partial Disability Claims
- Lumbar and cervical disc injuries: Herniations that need surgery, or that never fully resolve after injections and therapy, often leave lifting and bending restrictions that cost workers their old jobs. Insurers frequently blame degenerative disc disease, so the medical causation opinion carries the case.
- Rotator cuff and SLAP tears: Shoulder injuries are common among derrickhands, mechanics, and anyone who pulls, lifts, or works overhead, and repaired shoulders often come back with permanent range-of-motion loss and overhead restrictions.
- Meniscus and ACL tears: Knee injuries from falls, awkward steps on job sites, or climbing in and out of equipment can leave lasting instability and limit time on your feet, which matters for drivers, warehouse workers, and tradespeople.
- Fractures of the foot, ankle, and hip: Complex breaks from falls, crushing incidents, and vehicle wrecks can require hardware and multiple surgeries, and the resulting stiffness or pain can end physically demanding careers.
- Burns on industrial sites: Plant, refinery, and oil field burns often cause scarring, nerve damage, and heat intolerance that follow a worker long after the wounds close.
- Neck injuries from vehicle collisions on the job: Delivery drivers, truckers, and employees running work errands who are hit on Louisiana roads may carry lasting cervical restrictions, and some of these cases also support a separate claim against the negligent driver.
- Occupational conditions in first responders: Heart and lung disease, hearing loss, and other job-related conditions in firefighters and similar workers can leave permanent limitations that fall into this benefit category.
What to Do When You Have Reached the Permanent Stage
The most important thing is to keep every medical appointment and make sure your treating doctor documents your restrictions in writing, in specific terms. A note that says “light duty” is far weaker than one that says no lifting over ten pounds, no overhead reaching, no prolonged standing. Those written restrictions are the foundation for both the impairment picture and the earnings-loss calculation. If you are asked to attend an independent medical examination, go, but understand that the doctor is typically chosen by the insurer and that his conclusions may differ sharply from your own physician’s.
Keep records of your job search and your actual earnings if you have returned to work at reduced pay or taken a different job. Pay stubs, tax records, and notes on every employer you contact all feed into the supplemental earnings analysis. The insurer will argue that you can earn more than you actually do, sometimes by pointing to jobs on a list that do not match your restrictions, your skills, or your location. A documented, good-faith job search is what answers that argument.
Mind the deadlines. In Louisiana you should report an injury to your employer within 30 days, and a formal claim generally must be filed within one year of the accident, though the period can stretch to three years from the last compensation payment if benefits were paid. If the insurer denies a medical treatment request, you have 15 calendar days from receiving written notice to file a dispute form with the Office of Workers’ Compensation, after which the OWC medical director has 30 calendar days to decide. If you disagree with that decision, you then have 45 days from the date it was issued to ask for a hearing before a workers’ compensation judge. These clocks run from specific events, and missing one can cost you the issue.
Louisiana has ten district workers’ compensation courts, including locations in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Monroe, and Shreveport. The worker generally chooses where to file: the parish where the injury happened, the parish where you lived when you were hurt, or the parish of the employer’s principal place of business. A judgment from a workers’ compensation judge can be appealed to the appropriate Louisiana court of appeal. An appeal that suspends the judgment must be filed within thirty days, and one that does not suspend it within sixty, with the time running from the later of the signing of the judgment or the mailing of notice of judgment.
Finally, do not sign a settlement, a return-to-work agreement, or a recorded statement without having someone read it who knows what it gives up. Once a permanent partial disability settlement is approved, the door on future wage benefits is usually closed for good.
Where Insurers Push Back on Permanent Partial Disability
The fights in these cases tend to cluster in the same few places. The first is the impairment itself. An insurer’s doctor may assign a lower rating, minimize your restrictions, or claim that your condition was already there before the accident. A pre-existing condition does not end a claim if your work caused, worsened, or accelerated it, but answering that argument takes clear medical evidence, often a direct opinion from your surgeon or treating physician.
The second is earning capacity. The carrier may say you can earn ninety percent or more of your old wages, which would cut off supplemental earnings benefits entirely, by pointing to jobs that exist on paper. Our job is to show what you can realistically do given your restrictions, education, work history, and the labor market where you live. Vocational evidence, job search records, and your treating doctor’s restrictions all matter here.
The third is timing and settlement. Insurers sometimes offer a lump sum early, before the full extent of the permanent limitation is clear, or before you have had a chance to see how your body handles real work. Whether to settle, and for how much, depends on your remaining weeks of benefits, your medical future, and whether you will need ongoing treatment that the settlement would cut off. We look at all of that before recommending anything.
Some work injuries also involve a third party, such as a negligent driver or a contractor with an unsafe site. In those cases a separate injury claim can run alongside your comp benefits, and the two need to be coordinated so one does not undercut the other.
Questions Injured Workers Ask About Permanent Partial Disability in Louisiana
What does permanent partial disability mean in Louisiana workers’ compensation?
It means your work injury left you with a lasting impairment, but you can still do some kind of work. It is different from temporary disability, which covers the healing period, and from permanent total disability, where you cannot return to gainful work at all.
What are supplemental earnings benefits?
They are wage-loss payments for workers who return to work at reduced pay or cannot earn what they did before. They equal two-thirds of the gap between your pre-injury wages and what you earn or are able to earn, and they apply when you cannot earn ninety percent or more of your old wages.
How long can supplemental earnings benefits last?
They can continue until you are released to full duty, you are earning your pre-injury wages again, or you hit the 520-week maximum. Weeks of temporary total disability count toward that limit.
How is the weekly benefit amount determined?
It is based on a percentage of your wages, subject to a weekly maximum and minimum that Louisiana sets each year from the statewide average weekly wage. The limits that apply to you are the ones in effect on the date of your accident, and they do not change later.
Do I need to be at maximum medical improvement before these benefits are resolved?
Generally the permanent stage begins once your doctor says you have plateaued. Settling before that point can be risky because the full extent of your limitations may not be known, and a settlement usually ends your right to future wage benefits.
Can the insurance company force me to see their doctor?
The insurer can request an independent medical examination. You should attend, but the examiner’s opinion is not the final word, and your treating physician’s records and opinions remain important evidence.
What if my employer says my injury is just an old injury or wear and tear?
A pre-existing condition does not automatically bar benefits. If your job caused, worsened, or sped up the condition, you may still qualify. Strong medical testimony tying the work to the injury is what usually settles the question.
What happens if the insurer denies a treatment my doctor recommends?
You have 15 calendar days from written notice of the denial to file a dispute with the Office of Workers’ Compensation. The OWC medical director then has 30 calendar days to decide, and if you disagree, you have 45 days from the decision’s issuance to seek a hearing before a workers’ compensation judge.
Can I still receive benefits if I go back to work at a lower-paying job?
Yes. That situation is exactly what supplemental earnings benefits are designed for. Keep your pay records, because the benefit depends on the difference between what you used to earn and what you earn now.
Can I be fired for filing a claim?
Louisiana protects workers from retaliation for filing a comp claim. If you were let go or disciplined after reporting an injury, tell us so we can review your options.
Is it worth hiring a lawyer if my disability seems minor?
Often, yes, because a modest-looking impairment can still carry years of benefits, and the insurer’s first calculation is rarely generous. Consultations are free and we are paid only if we recover for you, so you lose nothing by having the claim reviewed.
Can I also sue someone other than my employer?
If a third party caused your injury, such as a negligent driver or a contractor, you may have a separate injury claim. Louisiana now gives two years from the day of injury for most injury lawsuits arising from incidents after mid-2024, but the comp deadlines are shorter, so speak to a lawyer early.
Serving Louisiana Permanent Partial Disability Clients Statewide
We represent injured workers throughout Louisiana. In the New Orleans area, that includes people hurt in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines parishes and communities across the river and along the lakefront. Across South Louisiana we serve Baton Rouge and the surrounding Capital Region, Lafayette and Acadiana, Houma and Terrebonne, and the industrial corridor workers who keep refineries and plants running between those cities.
Further west we work with clients in Lake Charles and the Calcasieu area, and in north Louisiana we assist workers from Shreveport and the surrounding communities, as well as those in the Monroe and Alexandria regions. Whether your injury happened on a job site in the city, at an oil field in the countryside, or on the road in a work vehicle, the same benefit rules apply and the same hearing system handles your claim. We also represent workers across Mississippi, from Jackson and Madison to the Gulf Coast, Hattiesburg, Southaven, and the Delta.
Talk to a Louisiana Permanent Partial Disability Attorney Today
If your doctor has told you that your injury is permanent, or the insurance company is pressing you to accept less than your limitations justify, a conversation with a Louisiana permanent partial disability attorney can clarify where you stand before you sign anything. We will review your medical records, your restrictions, and your work history, and tell you plainly what benefits you may be entitled to and what the insurer is likely to argue.
Call Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC any time, day or night, to schedule a free consultation. You pay no fee unless we recover benefits for you, and we advance the costs of your case. We help injured workers, and that is all we do.
