Metairie Amputation Lawyer
A traumatic amputation on a job site, whether a hand drawn into a press, a leg crushed under equipment, or fingers lost to a saw, changes how a person works, earns, and lives, and the workers’ compensation claim that follows decides how much of that change gets paid for. Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is a workers’ compensation law firm that represents injured workers across Mississippi and Louisiana, including Metairie and Jefferson Parish, and works on cases where the injury is permanent and the insurer’s first offer rarely reflects what the loss will cost over a lifetime.
If you are searching for a Metairie amputation lawyer, you are probably dealing with surgery, prosthetic questions, and a paycheck that stopped, all at once. Louisiana law treats the loss of a body part differently from an ordinary strain or sprain. The workers’ compensation statute includes scheduled benefits for specific losses, such as an arm, hand, finger, leg, foot, or toe, and those scheduled payments can sit alongside the wage benefits you receive while healing. How those pieces fit together, and whether you can return to your old work at all, is where most of the real money in these claims is won or lost.
Amputation claims also draw closer scrutiny than people expect. Insurers argue about the wage figure used to calculate your weekly check, about whether a prosthetic or a particular surgeon is “reasonable,” and about whether you can do some lighter job that pays less. Each of those arguments has a medical and vocational answer, and building that answer early is far easier than repairing a poor record after benefits have already been cut.
Why Choose Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC for an Amputation Claim
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is a workers’ compensation firm serving injured workers in Metairie, throughout Jefferson Parish, and across south Louisiana and Mississippi. Most lawyers who take comp cases are personal injury lawyers who handle a work injury only when one comes through the door; this firm is built the other way around. The firm has recovered more than $100 million in settlements for its clients, works on a no recovery, no fee basis, offers free consultations, advances the costs of the case, and answers its phones 24 hours a day. Spanish-speaking clients can work with the team in their own language, hablamos español.
Rob Lunsford, Founding Partner, has spent his entire legal career representing injured workers. 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 a severe-injury claim cannot be resolved at the negotiating table. Keaton Belk and Erin Heimlicher round out the attorney team.
Severe injuries are where the firm’s results are concentrated. Those include a $685,000 settlement 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 after being struck in his work vehicle, and $221,000 for a land-based oil rig worker with severe burns. Clients describe a team that listens, communicates, and stays in the fight with the insurance company, and that is the kind of steady attention a permanent-loss claim needs over months or years.
Workplace Settings Where Amputations Happen in the Metairie Area
Amputation injuries come from specific machinery and specific environments, and identifying the source early shapes both the comp claim and any claim against a third party. The common categories include the following.
- Industrial Machinery and Press Injuries: Lathes, presses, conveyors, and cutting equipment in fabrication shops and manufacturing plants can crush or sever hands and fingers, especially when guards are missing or lockout procedures are skipped.
- Construction Site Crush Injuries: Heavy equipment, falling materials, and trench or scaffold collapses can cause crush injuries to legs, feet, and arms that end in surgical amputation days after the accident.
- Oil Field and Industrial Plant Accidents: Pipe handling, rotating equipment, and explosions or burns at rigs and plants can lead to the loss of limbs, and these jobs often involve several contractors, which opens third-party claims.
- Vehicle and Truck Accidents on the Job: Delivery drivers, truckers, and workers in company vehicles can lose limbs in wrecks on roads like Veterans Memorial Boulevard or Interstate 10 through Jefferson Parish, creating both a comp claim and a claim against the at-fault driver.
- Food Processing and Warehouse Equipment: Slicers, grinders, balers, and forklifts in distribution and processing facilities are frequent causes of finger, hand, and foot amputations.
- Delayed Amputations After Infection or Complications: A crush fracture or severe wound may be treated first, with amputation following weeks later because of infection or failed repair. Insurers sometimes try to separate the later surgery from the original accident, and it should be tied back to the work injury.
- Partial Loss of a Finger, Toe, or Hand: Even a partial amputation can end a trade that depends on grip, dexterity, or standing for long shifts, and it can support significant disability benefits.
What to Do After a Work Amputation Injury in Louisiana
The first priority is medical care, and the second is making sure the injury is on record. Get treated, tell the medical providers that the injury happened at work, and report it to your employer. Louisiana law requires notice to the employer within 30 days of the accident, and a formal claim generally must be filed within one year of the injury, although payments already made can extend that window to three years from the last payment. Do not let those dates drift. Workers who wait for the employer to “take care of it” sometimes discover the insurer never opened a claim at all.
Keep what you can: photographs of the machine and the scene, names of coworkers who saw it happen, the incident report if one was written, and every medical record and bill. If the amputated part was preserved for possible reattachment, medical teams handle that, but afterward write down what the equipment was, who maintained it, and whether safety guards or procedures were in place. That information matters if a manufacturer or a contractor other than your employer shares the blame, because Louisiana generally gives a person two years from the date of injury to sue in tort for injuries occurring on or after July 1, 2024, and that clock is separate from your comp claim.
Claims are heard by workers’ compensation judges at the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration. Appeals from a judgment go to the appropriate Louisiana court of appeal, and for Jefferson Parish that is the Fifth Circuit. An appeal that suspends the judgment must be filed within 30 days, and one that does not suspend it within 60 days, so deadlines after a ruling are short.
Treatment disputes run on an even tighter timetable. If the insurer denies a recommended surgery, a prosthesis, or another treatment through utilization review, the aggrieved party has 15 calendar days from written notice of the denial to file a dispute form with the OWC, and the medical director then has 30 calendar days to decide. A further challenge to that decision must be filed within 45 days of its issuance. Missing these windows can leave you without a prosthetic you need, so send any denial letter to a lawyer the day it arrives.
Finally, be careful with recorded statements and with any settlement paper the adjuster sends. Early offers are often calculated before the full effect of the amputation on your career is known. Speak with an attorney before signing anything that closes out medical benefits.
How Amputation Benefits Are Built in a Louisiana Comp Claim
An amputation claim generally has several parts that run at once. Medical benefits cover all reasonable and necessary treatment, which includes surgery, hospital care, physical therapy, follow-up care, and prosthetic devices, along with replacements over time as devices wear out and technology improves. Wage benefits begin while you are unable to work, at two-thirds of your average weekly wage up to a maximum that is set by the date of your accident and is adjusted annually. That cap is fixed for your claim by the accident date and is not raised later.
Once you reach maximum medical improvement, the question becomes what you can still earn. If you return to work at lower pay, or cannot earn at least 90 percent of what you made before, supplemental earnings benefits can pay two-thirds of the difference between your old wages and what you earn or are able to earn. Those benefits can continue until you are released to full duty, earn your pre-injury wages, or reach the 520-week maximum, with temporary total disability weeks counting toward that total. For a roofer, mechanic, or machine operator who loses a hand or a foot, that wage-loss calculation often becomes the largest part of the claim.
Louisiana law also provides scheduled benefits for specific permanent losses, including the loss of a hand, arm, leg, foot, or digits, and the statute treats loss of use in some circumstances as equal to physical loss. The schedule and your wage benefits interact, and which route applies to your injury can change the value of the case considerably, which is why the legal framing matters as much as the medical diagnosis.
Vocational rehabilitation can matter here as well. When a prior trade is no longer possible, retraining and job placement may be part of the picture, and insurers sometimes claim that sedentary work is available at a wage you would never realistically be hired to earn. Vocational evidence is how that argument gets answered.
Claims Beyond Comp: Third Parties and Phantom Limb Realities
Workers’ compensation is generally the exclusive remedy against your own employer, but it does not shield everyone else. A defective machine can support a product liability claim against the manufacturer. A negligent contractor on a shared site, an equipment owner, or an at-fault driver can face a personal injury suit. Those claims can reach damages that comp does not, including pain and suffering, and the firm handles personal injury cases so the two claims are coordinated rather than allowed to undercut each other. Louisiana now bars recovery for a claimant found 51 percent or more at fault in causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026, with lower fault reducing the award proportionally, which makes early evidence about how the accident happened especially valuable.
The injury itself continues after the wound heals. Many amputees live with phantom limb pain, prosthetic fitting adjustments, skin breakdown from socket pressure, and depression or anxiety after sudden loss. These are part of the medical picture and belong in the claim. Treating providers who document them carefully help support ongoing care and a fair valuation.
Metairie Amputation Claim Questions Answered
Do I need a lawyer for an amputation claim in Metairie?
Because the injury is permanent and the benefits can last for years, it is worth having one. The value of the claim depends on wage calculations, scheduled-loss rules, supplemental earnings, and prosthetic coverage, and insurers have adjusters and attorneys working to hold those numbers down.
How much does it cost to hire the firm?
Nothing up front. Consultations are free, the firm advances the costs of the case, and fees are paid only if benefits or a settlement are recovered. Attorney fees in workers’ compensation cases are also limited and approved under state law.
How long do I have to report an amputation injury at work?
Report it to your employer right away and no later than 30 days after the accident. A formal claim generally must be filed within one year of the injury in Louisiana, though payments already made can extend that period to three years from the last payment.
Will workers’ compensation pay for a prosthetic limb?
Medical benefits cover reasonable and necessary treatment, and a prosthesis is a core part of recovery for most amputees. Replacements, repairs, and upgrades over time can also be part of the claim, and if the insurer denies one, the 15-day dispute deadline applies.
What if the insurer denies my claim or stops paying?
Denials are often tied to disputes about whether the accident happened at work, whether you gave timely notice, or whether the treatment is necessary. A denial can be challenged before a workers’ compensation judge, and an unfavorable ruling can be appealed to the court of appeal within the short deadlines described above.
Can I receive both scheduled amputation benefits and wage benefits?
In many cases they run alongside each other rather than replacing each other, but how they interact depends on the specific loss, your recovery stage, and your work capacity. An attorney can map out which benefits apply to your situation before you accept any lump-sum offer.
What if my amputation happened weeks after the original accident?
A later amputation caused by infection, failed repair, or complications from a work injury can still belong to the original claim. Insurers sometimes argue the surgery is unrelated, so medical documentation linking it to the accident is important.
Can I also sue someone other than my employer?
Often yes. If a machine manufacturer, an outside contractor, a property owner, or a negligent driver contributed to the injury, you may have a separate personal injury claim. Louisiana’s two-year period for most injury suits applies to injuries on or after July 1, 2024.
What happens if I could never return to my old job?
Wage benefits, supplemental earnings benefits, and vocational rehabilitation are designed for this situation. Supplemental earnings can continue until a release to full duty, a return to pre-injury wages, or the 520-week maximum, and the firm builds vocational evidence to show what work is realistically available to you.
Can my employer fire me for filing a claim after an amputation?
Louisiana protects workers from retaliation for filing a comp claim. If you were let go or disciplined after reporting the injury, tell your attorney during the consultation so the circumstances can be reviewed.
Does the 51 percent fault rule affect my comp benefits?
No. Workers’ compensation is generally a no-fault system, so your own carelessness does not typically erase benefits. The fault rule matters mostly in any separate third-party injury claim, where a claimant found 51 percent or more at fault can recover nothing for causes of action arising on or after January 1, 2026.
Does the firm help Spanish-speaking workers?
Yes. Hablamos español, and Spanish-speaking clients can work with the team in their own language from the first call through the end of the case.
Serving Amputation Injury Clients Across Metairie and Jefferson Parish
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC represents injured workers throughout Metairie and the rest of Jefferson Parish, including Kenner, Harahan, River Ridge, Elmwood, Old Jefferson, Bridge City, Westwego, Marrero, Harvey, Gretna, Terrytown, and Avondale. The team also assists workers from neighboring New Orleans, including the communities along the river and the industrial corridors that feed Jefferson Parish jobs, and from St. Charles Parish and St. Tammany Parish across the lake.
Beyond the metro area, the firm serves clients throughout south Louisiana, including Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles, and reaches north to Shreveport and across north Louisiana. The firm also represents workers across Mississippi, from Jackson and Madison to the Gulf Coast, Hattiesburg, Southaven, the Delta, and north Mississippi. Wherever the injury happened, the goal is the same: accurate benefits, the right medical care, and a claim built for a permanent change.
Talk to a Metairie Amputation Attorney Today
If a work accident cost you a limb, a hand, or a finger, a Metairie amputation attorney at Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC can explain how Louisiana’s deadlines and benefit rules apply to your situation and what the insurer will likely argue next. Phones are answered 24 hours a day, consultations are free, and you owe no fee unless benefits or a settlement are recovered for you. Call to schedule a consultation and let the team start protecting your medical care and your income while you focus on recovery.
