What Is Maximum Medical Improvement in Injury Cases?

 Posted on May 30, 2025 in Personal Injury

Approximately 40 million people visit U.S. emergency rooms each year due to injuries. While some wounds are minor with a full recovery possible, others have long-term effects. If your injury-producing accident happened at work, you should be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits. Various kinds of accidents allow injured victims to file personal injury claims.

If your accident and injury qualify you for compensation through a personal injury or workers’ compensation claim, you need to understand what maximum medical improvement is and how it can affect the compensation or benefits you receive. Our skilled Decatur, IL personal injury attorneys will fight to help you collect as much as you deserve.

What Is Maximum Medical Improvement After a Catastrophic Injury?

Catastrophic injuries are those that can affect victims for years or even permanently. Traumatic brain injuries, amputations, spinal cord injuries, paralysis, burns, and severe fractures are examples. Injuries like these can dramatically alter lives. Although the body may partially heal from these wounds, there comes a point when no further recovery is expected, even if medical treatment continues. That point is known as maximum medical improvement (MMI), and it is important in multiple ways.

Upon reaching MMI, you are better able to realize what your future looks like. You might be confined to a wheelchair because of paralysis, you may be permanently disfigured because of an amputation or severe burns, or your personality could be permanently changed after a brain injury. All these and similar long-term consequences can diminish your quality of life.

After your body has healed as much as possible, you may still need regular medical treatments. You might need help performing everyday tasks. You may not be able to return to work, or you could have to take a different job with lower pay due to your disabilities.

Whether you were hurt in a car accident, through medical malpractice, by malfunctioning machinery at work, or by another eligible incident, you have one chance to secure compensation or benefits. Insurance companies want to minimize the amount you receive. Your attorney will fight to ensure that does not happen.

How Do Insurers Use MMI Against You?

Insurers have several tactics in their bag of tricks, and all of them are designed to reduce claim payouts. These companies know that when you accept a settlement offer, you cannot come back to them later asking for more money.

One way insurers sabotage claims is by offering a fast but low settlement amount. You may think the amount is fair. However, you may be entitled to damages for your future accident-related expenses and non-financial losses. You cannot determine the value of your future losses until you reach MMI. Without a firm grasp of what those future damages are, you could be left with a settlement that does not cover them. We know when and how to calculate your damages and will pursue the maximum amount.

In workers’ comp claims, your catastrophic injuries could qualify you for permanent disability. However, workers’ comp insurance companies do not want to pay full benefits. We can fight to help you receive all available benefits.

Discuss Your Case With Our Experienced Bloomington, IL Personal Injury Attorneys

You do not have to fight an insurance company alone. One of the determined Peoria, IL workers’ comp lawyers at Kanoski Bresney will work hard to help you recover the full compensation or benefits you are entitled to. Set up your appointment for a free case review by contacting us at 888-826-8682 or online today.