Catastrophic Injury Benefits in Workers’ Comp Cases

• Sep 15, 2025
• Blog
• Michael Burgis & Associates, P.C

Catastrophic injuries change lives in profound ways. If you’ve been hurt to the point that you can no longer perform basic daily tasks—like cooking, cleaning, driving, or shopping—you may be entitled to compensation. While most people know these damages can be recovered in personal injury lawsuits, few realize they are also available in California workers’ compensation cases.

My name is Michael Burgis, managing attorney at MB&A, and I’ve dedicated my career to helping seriously injured workers secure the benefits they deserve. In the video below, I explain how home care and home modifications can be obtained, even when insurers resist.

Transcript

Have you been catastrophically injured? And what I mean is, injured to the point where you are unable to do certain activities and somebody has to do those for you, like cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, driving, that type of stuff. Well, if this is a personal injury lawsuit and a negligent third party, like an auto accident happened, well, in that case, you can absolutely get that because it’s called compensatory damages. And that could largely work up the value of your case for the future. But most people don’t know that you can actually get this in workers’ compensation as well.

Hi, my name is Michael Burgis. I’m the managing attorney of MB&A. I’m a certified legal specialist in California Workers’ Compensation, and I’m a trial attorney.

Catastrophic Injuries and Workers’ Compensation

In workers’ compensation, if you are catastrophically injured and you are unable to do those activities, it is almost a Herculean task to get this done in workers’ comp. What I mean is, the workers’ compensation insurance companies make it almost impossible to get home care or home modification through your case. But guess what? It is possible. And there’s recent case law that’s come down making it even harder. But we can get around this.

So first, if you have a workers’ compensation case and ultimately you are so injured that somebody is having to provide assistance for you, don’t stress. You may be able to get that person paid to provide the services for you, and you may even be able to get lifetime future medical care and compensation for that indefinitely for your future.

Litigation for Home Care and Home Modification

Here’s the gist: one, you need to be with a really good workers’ compensation attorney who knows how to do this. And frankly, I don’t really know other firms that litigate this. Home care and home modification are kind of two things. Home modification is, for instance, you have a very debilitating back injury. You’ve had failed surgery and you can’t ambulate without assistant care. But you live in a condo with steps and carpet, and you can’t get up the stairs and you’re tripping over the carpet. Did you know you can be relocated to a single-floor residence with hardwood based on the medical necessity?

Additionally, if somebody is providing care for you to cook, clean, grocery shop, or do those things that you can’t do, you could potentially get them paid for their services they’ve provided. And additionally, if that is reasonably medically necessary and ongoing going forward, you can get lifetime future care.

New Case Law: Must Show It’s Medically Necessary

But there are a lot of hurdles here. You have to first show the reasonable medical necessity of it. Good luck getting jurisdiction by the court to hear it. Lots of hurdles to get there.

And then there’s new case law establishing that even if someone can’t do it, that doesn’t matter. You have to show that it’s medical treatment—that it’s medically necessary to have that done for them, or they’re going to get worse.

We Litigate the Psychiatric Component

So, for instance, take a typical orthopedic case, and they have very debilitating orthopedic injuries, and they can’t cook, clean, grocery shop, run errands, do laundry, that type of stuff.

Well, now there’s another level. And what my firm does is we work up the psychiatric component. So even if it is not a treatment on the orthopedic side, when a psychiatrist or a psychologist or a mental health therapist says, “Well, he or she can’t do this, and if somebody doesn’t help perform this for them, their psychiatric injuries are going to decompensate, making them worse. Therefore, it is medically necessary,” that care is medical treatment.

Contact Us About Your Catastrophic Injury Case

So lots of hurdles here. But I want to tell you, if you are catastrophically injured or you know somebody who’s catastrophically injured, whether it’s a civil case or workers’ compensation case, and your attorney or whoever’s representing you, or the adjuster, nobody’s mentioned that you’re entitled to benefits, including home care and home modification, it’s very important to give us a call.

Again, Michael Burgis and Associates—we are the experts at home care and home modifications, both workers’ compensation and civilly. If you have any questions, we have the answers and we’re here to help.