Louisiana Light Duty Work Lawyer
Your doctor has cleared you for “modified duty,” your employer just handed you a form describing a job you may not be able to do, and the paychecks have shrunk or stopped. Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC represents injured workers throughout Louisiana and Mississippi, and light duty disputes are some of the most common problems we see after a work injury. Whether you were hurt in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, or Shreveport, the questions are usually the same.
If you are searching for a Louisiana light duty work lawyer, you are probably asking one of a few things. Can my employer make me take this job? What happens to my benefits if I refuse? What if they offered light duty and then sent me home because there is “nothing for me to do”? And how do I earn less money at work without losing the difference I am owed? Louisiana law has real answers to each of those, and the answers depend heavily on what your doctor actually wrote and what your employer actually offered.
Light duty is not a favor. It is a point where the insurance company often starts building a case to reduce or end your wage benefits. A job offer on paper can become the reason a carrier says you no longer need checks. Knowing how that works before you sign, show up, or decline is where most of the protection lies.
How Light Duty Offers Affect Your Louisiana Wage Benefits
Louisiana wage replacement changes depending on where you are in recovery. While you cannot work at all, you are in temporary total disability territory. Once a doctor releases you to restricted work, the insurer’s position usually shifts: if a suitable job exists, it argues you should no longer be paid as totally disabled.
When you return to work earning less than you did before the injury, supplemental earnings benefits come into play. Under the Louisiana statute, these benefits equal two-thirds of the difference between your average monthly wage at the time of injury and what you are earning, or are able to earn, in any employment. They apply when your injury keeps you from earning 90 percent or more of your pre-injury wages. The words “or are able to earn” matter. An insurer can claim you could earn more than you actually do, and that is where light duty offers and job market surveys get used against injured workers.
Supplemental earnings benefits can continue until you are released to full duty, you are back to earning your pre-injury wage, or you reach the 520-week maximum. Any weeks you were paid temporary total disability count toward that 520. Weekly compensation is also subject to a statutory maximum that is set by the date of your accident and does not change afterward.
Why Choose Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe for a Louisiana Light Duty Dispute
Lunsford, Baskin & Priebe PLLC is a workers’ compensation firm. Most lawyers who take comp cases are personal injury attorneys who handle a work injury only when one comes through the door. We represent injured workers across Louisiana and Mississippi, and we have recovered more than $100 million in settlements for our clients.
Rob Lunsford, our 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 tried dozens of jury and bench trials to verdict, Keaton Belk and Erin Heimlicher round out the team, and Spanish-speaking clients can work with us in their own language.
Light duty fights are often about back, shoulder, and knee injuries, and our results reflect that kind of work: 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 when his work vehicle was struck, and $221,000 for a land-based oil rig worker with severe burns. Clients regularly tell us what mattered most was that someone listened, answered the phone, and stood up to the insurance company. Consultations are free, we advance case costs, and you pay no fee unless we recover benefits for you.
Light Duty Situations We See Most Often in Louisiana
- Restrictions the job cannot actually accommodate: A doctor limits lifting, bending, or standing, and the employer offers a position that on paper fits but in practice requires the very movements your doctor prohibited. This is common in warehouses, plants, and construction.
- Light duty that disappears: You return to modified work, then are told no tasks are available and are sent home. Whether your wage benefits resume depends on how the job ended and what your restrictions still are.
- Reduced hours or pay after returning: Modified duty often means fewer hours, no overtime, or a lower-paying role. That gap is exactly what supplemental earnings benefits are designed to address.
- Offers that conflict with your own doctor: Some employers send job descriptions to a company-selected physician, who approves duties your treating doctor never would. The dispute over whose restrictions control is a frequent turning point.
- Oilfield, offshore, and industrial injuries: Burns, shoulder injuries from pipe handling, and back injuries in industrial settings often leave workers unable to return to their old jobs, with light duty offers that do not fit their skills.
- Truck drivers and delivery workers: Drivers with lumbar or knee injuries may be released to restricted work that does not exist at their company, leaving them in a gray zone between disability and a real job offer.
- Healthcare and first responder jobs: Nurses, techs, and firefighters often have physically demanding roles where permanent lifting limits make a return to the same job unrealistic.
- Retaliation after a restricted return: Louisiana protects workers from being fired for filing a comp claim. If you were disciplined or terminated after asking for accommodation, that deserves a close look.
What to Do When Your Employer Offers Light Duty
Start with the paperwork. Ask for the offer in writing, including the job duties, hours, pay rate, and location. Then take it to your treating doctor and ask whether each task fits your written restrictions. Do not assume a job description matches what you will be asked to do. If it does not match, make sure your doctor says so in your records, because that note may later decide your benefits.
If the job fits within your restrictions, going to work and doing what you can is generally the safe path, and it can protect your standing. If you try it and cannot perform the tasks, tell your supervisor, tell your doctor, and keep a record of what happened and when. Do not simply stop showing up. Refusing suitable work can give an insurer grounds to cut off benefits, while a documented good-faith attempt that fails for medical reasons tells a very different story.
Report your injury to your employer in writing within 30 days of the accident; Louisiana law bars a comp proceeding without that notice. A formal claim generally must be filed within one year of the injury, though that period can extend to three years from the last compensation payment if benefits were paid. Do not let a light duty arrangement lull you into waiting.
If the insurer denies or cuts off medical treatment, the dispute goes through a utilization review process. You have 15 calendar days from receiving written notice of the denial to file LWC Form 1009 with the Office of Workers’ Compensation Administration. The OWC medical director then has 30 calendar days to decide. If you disagree with that decision, you have 45 days from the date it was issued to file Form 1008. Those clocks run from the date of notice or issuance, not from when you finally get around to reading the letter.
Wage disputes are heard by a workers’ compensation judge in one of the state’s district OWC offices, including locations in New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Lake Charles, Shreveport, and Monroe. You choose among the parish where you were hurt, the parish where you lived at the time, or the parish of the employer’s principal place of business. A final judgment can be appealed to the appropriate Louisiana court of appeal; an appeal that suspends the judgment must be filed within 30 days, and one that does not suspend it within 60. Keep every pay stub, doctor’s note, work status slip, and written offer. Those papers become the evidence.
When Insurers Use Light Duty Against You
Carriers have a familiar sequence. They get a restricted release, identify or create a modified job, and then argue your benefits should drop because you can earn something. Sometimes the job is genuine. Sometimes it is a short-term arrangement that exists only to reduce what they owe, and it vanishes once the benefit reduction is in place.
Another common tactic is the labor market survey, where a vocational consultant lists jobs they say you could do within your restrictions. These lists can include positions that are not hiring, that pay less than described, or that require skills or hours you do not have. Challenging a survey means looking at each listed job and testing whether it truly fits your medical limits and your work history.
Pre-existing conditions come up here too. If you have a history of back or knee problems, the insurer may argue your restrictions come from the old condition rather than the work injury. Louisiana does not end your claim just because you had prior issues. If work caused, worsened, or accelerated the condition, benefits can still be owed, and building the medical evidence to show that is core to what we do.
Questions About Louisiana Light Duty Work
Can my employer force me to take light duty?
An employer can offer modified work that fits your doctor’s restrictions, and refusing a genuinely suitable job can put your wage benefits at risk. But the job must truly match your restrictions. If it does not, you have grounds to decline and to document why.
What happens to my checks if I accept light duty at lower pay?
If you return to work earning less than 90 percent of your pre-injury wage because of the injury, you may qualify for supplemental earnings benefits, which pay two-thirds of the difference between your pre-injury average monthly wage and what you earn or are able to earn.
What if I try light duty and my pain gets worse?
Tell your supervisor and your doctor right away, and make sure the change is recorded in your medical file. A documented, good-faith attempt that fails for medical reasons is very different from simply walking away.
Can I be fired while on light duty?
Louisiana protects workers from retaliation for filing a comp claim. An employer can still end employment for legitimate reasons, so the timing, the stated reason, and how you were treated compared to others all matter.
Do I need a lawyer if my employer is cooperating?
Not always. But if your benefits are reduced, delayed, or cut off, or your injury will keep you out of full work for a long time, legal help can matter a great deal. The insurer has adjusters and lawyers protecting its interests.
How long do supplemental earnings benefits last?
They continue until you are released to full duty, you return to your pre-injury earnings, or you hit the 520-week maximum. Weeks of temporary total disability count toward that total.
What if my employer sends me to its own doctor for a work release?
That doctor’s opinion does not automatically override your treating physician. Disputes over medical opinions are common, and there are procedures for resolving them. Do not agree to a job on the strength of an exam you did not understand.
Can I still get benefits if I quit the light duty job?
It depends on why you left. Quitting a job you could not physically perform, with medical documentation, is treated differently from leaving a suitable job without reason. Talk to a lawyer before you resign.
What if light duty was offered but the hours were cut?
Reduced hours can mean your actual earnings fall below the 90 percent threshold, which can support a supplemental earnings claim. Keep your pay records, because the comparison is built on actual numbers.
Does my claim end if I reach maximum medical improvement but still have restrictions?
No. Permanent restrictions can lead to continued supplemental earnings benefits or permanent disability benefits. Reaching a plateau in treatment is not the same as being fully recovered.
Can a car accident in a work vehicle affect my light duty claim?
Yes. If someone other than your employer caused the crash, you may have a separate injury claim in addition to comp benefits, and the two claims need to be handled so they do not undercut each other.
Serving Louisiana Workers From New Orleans to Shreveport
We represent injured workers across the state. In the greater New Orleans area, that includes Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, and St. Tammany parishes, along with communities like Metairie, Kenner, Harahan, Gretna, Slidell, and Covington. Across south Louisiana, we serve workers in Baton Rouge, Houma, Thibodaux, Lafayette, and Lake Charles, as well as the plants, docks, and oilfield jobs that surround them.
Heading north and west, we handle claims from Alexandria, Monroe, and Shreveport and the surrounding parishes. Our firm also serves injured workers throughout Mississippi, from Jackson and Madison to the Gulf Coast, Hattiesburg, Southaven, and the Delta, so workers who live in one state and are hurt in the other are not left without help.
Talk With a Louisiana Light Duty Work Attorney Today
If your employer is pushing a modified job, your benefits have been reduced, or you are not sure whether to accept an offer, speaking with a Louisiana light duty work attorney before you act can protect what you are owed. Our phones are answered 24 hours a day, consultations are free, and you pay nothing unless we recover benefits for you. Call us to talk through your situation, your restrictions, and your options.
