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Research Paper Confirms Attorneys’ Positive Impact on Clients’ Workers’ Comp Benefits, But Also a Need to Do More
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We workers’ compensation claimants’ attorneys have long known that our representation materially benefits our injured worker clients. Without having an attorney in their corner who knows workers’ compensation law inside and out, and who’s not afraid to call out employers, insurers, and their counsel for their abusive behavior and unconscionable (and illegal) denials of benefits, injured workers face an uphill battle securing the amounts of those benefits they deserve.
Though claimants’ attorneys know this to be a fact, quantifying exactly how much extra value we provide our clients is difficult. But a recently published National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, titled “Unresolved Conflict in Workers’ Compensation: The Impact of Legal Representation on Workers’ Compensation Benefits,” does just that. It provides several interesting statistics showing just how important retaining an attorney can be for an injured worker seeking to secure workers’ compensation benefits.
The headline findings are that based on the authors’ (Bogdan Savych and David Neumark) analysis of over 950,000 workers’ compensation claims across the U.S. where an injured worker had over seven days of lost time, one model showed attorneys increased workers’ compensation payments by between $7,700 and $12,400. Another model implied injured workers could see approximately a 400 percent to 500 percent increase in benefits secured. The median amount of indemnity benefits in the 950,000+ claims sample was $5,548, so even the low-end $7,700 increase was almost a 40 percent increase in benefits.
Thirty-four percent of the workers whose claims were analyzed for the study had engaged an attorney to assist them during the claim process. However, this number varied between different cases. Of the injured workers who sought partial permanent disability (PPD) and/or lump-sum (LS) settlements, approximately 64 percent were represented by attorneys. Contrast that to the 14 percent of injured workers suffering from more common temporary injuries who were represented by attorneys.
While the above statistics leap off the pages of the working paper as definitive proof injured workers benefit from retaining workers’ compensation claimants’ attorneys, there are other statistics from the working paper worth noting, including several showing how far claimants’ attorneys have to go before we can be comfortable knowing a large portion of injured workers who want to retain an attorney have actually done so.
The increased value workers’ compensation claimants’ attorneys bring depends on the nature of clients’ injuries
The $7,700/$12,400 and 400 percent/500 percent figures above were based on all 950,000+ claims analyzed by the working papers’ authors. As to be expected, the impact of workers’ compensation claimants’ attorneys’ involvement on their clients’ cases varied based on the clients’ injuries.
There was a range of the estimated effect of claimants’ attorneys’ involvement across the four groups the authors assigned workers’ claims to—fractures, lacerations, and contusions; low back pain; inflammations and non-back sprains and strains; and other injuries. Under one model, the estimated increases were approximately $4,900 for the first group, $7,850 for the second, $8,300 for the third, and $11,141 for the fourth.
While workers with injuries in the second and third groups often receive larger average indemnity benefits to begin with, it’s still meaningful that attorney involvement can increase payments by 300 to 700 percent, according to the authors’ analysis.
Workers’ compensation claimants’ attorneys’ can greatly increase the value of their clients’ PPD/LS claims
In the context of indemnity and PPD/LS claims, without regard to the injuries giving rise to them, the average indemnity benefit for a worker’s claim according to the authors’ analysis was $7,957 when they did not have an attorney. The median benefit was $2,584.
When a workers’ compensation claimants’ attorney was involved, those numbers jumped to $41,148 and $24,181, respectively. That’s an increase of approximately 417 percent and 836 percent, respectively. That increase once again speaks to the ability of claimants’ attorneys to force employers, insurers, and their counsel to pay their clients the benefits they’re entitled to.
While workers with injuries in the second and third groups often receive larger average indemnity benefits to begin with, it’s still meaningful that attorney involvement can increase payments by 300 to 700 percent, according to the authors’ analysis.
But more injured workers need workers’ compensation claimants’ attorneys
While the authors’ analysis shows the value workers’ compensation claimants’ attorneys provide injured workers is irrefutable, it subtly reveals a problem only claimants’ attorneys themselves can fix: Too few injured workers retain claimants’ attorneys.
Overall, only 34 percent of the over 950,000 claims the authors analyzed were ones where the injured worker had an attorney. That number increased for certain types of indemnity claims, like those with PPD or LS payments (64 percent) and ones with PPD and LS payments (79 percent). But only 61 percent of workers who suffered neurological spine pain, and only 55 percent of workers who received in-patient care for their injuries, had an attorney. And, only 35 percent of injured workers in the “high-risk services” industry group (which the authors did not define) had an attorney.
In addition, there was a notable difference between the rates at which injured workers in metropolitan areas retained workers’ compensation attorneys versus those in small towns or rural areas.
Thirty-five percent of the former group retained an attorney, but only 26 percent of the latter group did. That means rural injured workers were 35 percent less likely to retain an attorney than their urban counterparts. The working paper’s authors suggest these differences might have to do with workers in rural areas having a higher level of distrust toward attorneys than urban workers, and a concern that retaining an attorney could damage their relationship with their employer.
These statistics showing how few injured workers have retained claimants’ attorneys should be a wake-up call for those attorneys across the U.S. Employers, their insurers, and counsel for both rarely make life easy for injured workers seeking workers’ compensation benefits. In fact, in my experience, they openly antagonize injured workers, hoping to squeeze them into submission and force them to agree to lower amounts of benefits than they’re owed under the law because they don’t want to lose the roof over their families’ heads or fail to put food on the table next week.
Despite it being the law of the land in states across the U.S., too few employers and insurers honor the Grand Bargain that our nation’s workers agreed to—that they would forgo their constitutional due process rights to sue their employers for injuries they suffered on the job in exchange for an administrative regime that pays them benefits covering the wages lost and medical expenses incurred because of their injuries. Only claimants’ attorneys have the power to call out employers’ and insurers’ unlawful abuses of power and bad faith actions, and ensure their injured worker clients receive the benefits they’re legally entitled to.
But few claimants’ firms have developed effective marketing programs that consistently reach injured workers who wouldn’t typically have hired an attorney and educate those workers about their legal rights. This working paper makes clear, implicitly, that there is much more work for claimants’ attorneys to do to reach and to be retained by injured workers across the U.S. in need of securing workers’ compensation benefits.
Confirmation of the value workers’ compensation claimants’ attorneys provide, but a sign we have more work to do
“Unresolved Conflict in Workers’ Compensation: The Impact of Legal Representation on Workers’ Compensation Benefits” confirms what we workers’ compensation claimants’ attorneys and our colleagues have known for a long time: We add value for our clients and help them secure more benefits than they could secure on their own.
But this report also, perhaps unintentionally, provides support for another belief claimants’ attorneys have: Too few injured workers retain claimants’ attorneys.
Thus, the national workers’ compensation claimants’ bar as a whole has much progress to make before we can rest easy knowing most injured workers have the legal representation they need to secure the maximum amount of workers’ compensation benefits they’re entitled to.
compensation and social security disability law firm in Pennsylvania, and one of the largest in the U.S. He can be reached at spond@pondlehocky.com.
Reprinted with permission from the April 15, 2025 edition of The Legal Intelligencer © 2025 ALM Media Properties, LLC. All rights reserved. Further duplication without permission is prohibited, contact 877-257-3382 or reprints@alm.com.
