$95,000 Compensation for Bad Eye Injury at Work

11 May 2021

Gerard Malouf

If you’ve been injured at work and the injury resulted in the loss of an eye, you may be entitled to significant damages based on a workers’ compensation claim. Read on for the answers to key questions.

Can you claim compensation for loss of sight?

Workers’ compensation covers a large variety of work-related injuries or illnesses, including loss of an eye, which counts as a partial disability. If the loss of your eye was due to an injury you incurred at work, you may have a potential case.

To be eligible for workers’ compensation for loss of sight, you must:

Report your injury
Consult a medical professional
Receive a medical certificate that says your injury is legitimate
Submit a claim for workers’ compensation

How long do you have to make an eye injury claim?

Ideally, you should make your claim within three months of your injury, although this is not a strict deadline. The type of injury and the lasting impact it has on your life (such as partial or complete blindness) play a large part in determining your compensation.

A successful workers’ compensation claim will typically take into account:

Medical costs (such as eye surgery)
Rehabilitation costs
Lost wages
Lost benefits
Pain and suffering (for permanent impairment, such as loss of an eye)
Any legal costs

Is having one eye considered a disability?

If your injury caused permanent impairment, an experienced legal team can help you to seek workplace negligence damages in addition to a full workers’ compensation claim package.

In most cases, you’ll be eligible for this type of relief if your compensation claim is greater than 15% of whole person impairment, indicating you have suffered a life-altering injury, such as the loss of an eye.

Workplace negligence damages are for a lump sum. Be aware that once you receive a lump sum for wage loss, your workers’ compensation claim comes to an end. However, for permanent impairment involving loss of an eye, this type of claim can be well worth pursuing.

The legal experts at Gerard Malouf & Partners can help get you the relief you deserve in the form of a full compensation claim. This applies not only to the loss of a limb, appendage or organ, but diminished capacity in regard to daily activities or sexual performance.

What is workplace negligence?

Workplace negligence can conceivably be proven if one or more of the following applies:

The company failed to provide adequate and safe working conditions such as:

Protective clothing
Specialized footwear
Safety eyewear
A safe location, wherever you’re required to work

The company failed to properly and fully train and supervise you and your co-workers, thus failing to ensure you were equipped with the right skills to perform required tasks.

The company required or allowed you to perform dangerous tasks that could easily cause harm, such as excessively heavy and repetitive lifting or carrying of heavy objects without adequate human or mechanical assistance.

The company allowed you to work at a location not owned or under the control of your employers, and that location was unsafe for any reason related to working conditions, personnel, or machinery.

Actions for negligence against third parties

You may be able to bring an action against a third party if your accident occurred at work but was not caused by negligence from your employer, but rather an independent contractor, builder, company or group. Claims of this type may be even more substantial, as you can file not only for wage loss but the following:

Loss of superannuation
Medical expenses past and future
Home care requirements
Personal care needs
Pain and suffering

If you make a successful claim of this type you will be required to recompense your employer for any workers’ compensation paid out during the interim, a third-party claim can be lucrative to the point of overriding such payback.

Gerard Malouf & Partners lawyers can advise you as to the best path forward, whether it’s a employer negligence and work injury damages claim, and/or third-party action. Our work injury lawyers are dedicated to getting you the work injury compensation to which you’re entitled.

How much compensation for loss of sight?

You might be wondering, “What is the settlement value of a personal injury claim where you have lost your vision in either one eye or both?” The value of compensation for loss of sight depends on your impairment level and also incapacity.

Many workers who have sustained an injury causing loss of sight find it difficult to return to work. Even if you do return to work after losing an eye, you deserve compensation for the irrevocable way in which your life has been altered.

One of our clients did indeed suffer the loss of an eye and managed to return to work fully, but we extracted compensation to the maximum through alternative means since the parameters for impairment were not evident in his work behavior.

GMP work injury lawyers pursued the case by positing that the impairment of 15% existed, even though the client was able by force of will and personal motivation to overcome the disability and return to work.

To begin, we finalised a workers’ compensation claim for lump sum benefits relating to impairment and the old compensation for pain and suffering.

We were also able to proceed with a further lump sum claim solely in relation to the impairment rating of 15%.
Finally, we pursued a work injury damages claim proving that the employer was negligent.

Although, since our client had returned to work, we were not able to show any real economic loss, we resolved the claim amicably through the mediation process based on the potential loss of future earnings (‘buffer’). By doing so, our client received $95,000.00 in tax-free, non-economic loss payments, providing compensation for the truly harrowing experience of losing an eye at work.

Thanks to our legal team’s knowledge in personal injury law and in the field of workers’ compensation and work injury damages, our experienced GMP Lawyers were able to achieve a positive outcome for our client even outside of normal claim parameters.

Gerard Malouf

Principal

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