Recovery in Catastrophic Ladder Fall

Recovered $311,945.14. The client was injured in a catastrophic ladder fall while working as a roof installer and suffered extensive injuries to his foot, leg, and back.
The injured employee was a roof installer who was injured during a catastrophic ladder fall and suffered extensive injuries to his foot, leg, and back.

The injured employee underwent multiple surgeries, and the employee’s treating physicians recommended future medical treatment, including possible surgeries for the injuries to the employee’s foot included:

1. A subtalar fusion with iliac crest bone graft;
2. A distraction arthrodesis to improve his talar declination angle; and
3. A lateral wall ostectomy to decompress the peroneal tendons.

In addition to his feet, the employee also injured his hip/lower back in his work accident, and an MRI revealed facet arthropathy at multiple levels as well as an L5-S1 disc herniation.

Recommended treatments for this chronic lower back pain with left leg radicular symptoms included:

1. A left S1 transforaminal epidural steroid injection;
2. Physical therapy for the employee’s lower back; and
3. A low back brace for comfort, support, and pain management while up and around as well as to help improve function with less pain and provide adequate lumbar stability and proper postural support.

The injured employee was also evaluated by a psychiatrist concerning mental health issues arising out of his workplace accident, and the psychiatrist diagnosed the employee with an adjustment disorder with mildly depressed mood and requested medication management treatment for the employee’s depression and anxiety.

Unfortunately, the workers compensation insurance company was also underpaying the lost wage rate of this employee, so New Orleans Legal performed a proper analysis of this complicated wage rate issue and took the insurance company to court, and the workers compensation Judge ruled that the wage rate should be increased.

Specifically, the workers compensation insurance company failed to account for the employee’s wages for the final full week before his accident, and failed to account for the employee’s earnings from the successive employment he was simultaneously engaged in outside of his employment with the employer.

Concerning the employee’s wages for the final full week before his accident, the employee was working on a “piecework” basis at the time of his accident and the full week before the employee’s accident.

Concerning the employee’s earnings from the successive employment, the employee was entitled to the maximum weekly indemnity benefits, due to the successive income he produced “moonlighting” as an independent repairman (which was proven through affidavits signed by the employee’s repairman customers, obtained by New Orleans Legal).

Following extensive medical depositions and wage-rate litigation, the injured employee received a total of $432,367 in compensation from the workers compensation insurance company, including a full and final settlement of $311,945.