PJC General Negligence 2024

PJC 23.11

W ORKERS ’ C OMPENSATION —D ISABILITY , MMI & I MPAIRMENT

PJC 23.11 Disability—Definition “Disability” means the inability because of a compensable injury to obtain and retain employment at wages equivalent to the preinjury wage. COMMENT When to use. PJC 23.11 may be used in any case in which the injured worker and the insurance carrier disagree about the employee’s entitlement to temporary income benefits. A compensably injured employee is entitled to temporary income benefits when he has a disability and has not reached maximum medical impairment. See PJC 23.1 and 23.2 for questions on disability. Source of definition. Concepts of “impairment” and “disability” are not inter changeable under the Workers’ Compensation Act. “Impairment” means “any ana tomic or functional abnormality or loss existing after maximum medical improvement that results from a compensable injury and is reasonably presumed to be permanent.” Tex. Lab. Code §401.011(23); Insurance Co. of State of Pennsylvania v. Muro , 347 S.W.3d 268, 275 (Tex. 2011). “Disability” means “the inability because of a compen sable injury to obtain and retain employment at wages equivalent to the preinjury wage.” Tex. Lab. Code § 401.011(16); Muro , 347 S.W.3d at 275.

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