What Does Disfigurement Mean Under Massachusetts Law?

Disfigurement, in Massachusetts law, means a visible change to the way your body looks that was caused by an injury, and the word does two separate jobs depending on how you were hurt. If you were hurt at work, “bodily disfigurement” is its own cash payment under the workers compensation statute, M.G.L. c. 152, sec. 36(1)(k), capped at $15,000, and a disfigurement that is only a scar is paid only if the scar is on the face, neck or hands. If you were hurt in a car crash, “permanent and serious disfigurement” is one of five ways to clear the threshold in M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 6D that otherwise blocks pain and suffering damages until your medical expenses pass $2,000. Neither statute defines the word, the two set different conditions on it, and the same scar can be worth nothing under one and decisive under the other. That gap is the reason this question deserves more than a dictionary answer.

To talk through a scar or other lasting injury from a work accident or a crash, call Jim Glaser Law at (617) JIM-WINS. The line is answered 24 hours a day, and the first telephone consultation is free.

Disfigurement in Workers Compensation: Section 36(k)

Massachusetts workers compensation does not pay for pain and suffering. Chapter 152 replaced the right to sue your employer with a schedule of benefits, and section 24 of that chapter treats an employee as having waived the common law right of action unless the employee gave written notice claiming it at the time of hire. What the schedule offers instead of pain and suffering is section 36, the specific injury section, which pays set sums for particular permanent losses “in addition to all other compensation.” Disfigurement is the last item on that list.

Paragraph (k) reads, in full: “For bodily disfigurement, an amount which, according to the determination of the member or reviewing board, is a proper and equitable compensation, not to exceed fifteen thousand dollars; which sum shall be payable in addition to all other sums due under this section. No amount shall be payable under this section for disfigurement that is purely scar-based, unless such disfigurement is on the face, neck or hands.”

Four things follow directly from that text.

1. It is a separate payment. It is paid on top of weekly wage benefits, medical benefits and any other section 36 award, such as one for the loss of use of a hand. A worker with a permanently damaged and scarred hand can have a loss of function figure and a disfigurement figure for the same injury.
2. The amount is a judgment call, up to a ceiling. The statute does not set a price per inch or per location. It asks the decision maker at the Department of Industrial Accidents, the “member or reviewing board”, for an amount that is “proper and equitable”, and it caps that amount at $15,000.
3. Scars are limited by location. A disfigurement that is “purely scar-based” pays nothing unless it is on the face, neck or hands. A surgical scar down the knee, a burn scar across the back or a laceration scar on the forearm, standing alone, falls outside paragraph (k).
4. Death within thirty days ends it. The opening words of section 36(1) make every specific injury sum, disfigurement included, conditional on the employee not having “died from any cause within thirty days of such injury.”

What “purely scar-based” leaves open

The statute does not define “purely scar-based”, and no article should pretend it does. Read on its face, the limit applies to disfigurement that consists of a scar and nothing else. A disfigurement made of something more than a scar, such as a visible deformity, is not described by those words, which is why the location limit is best understood as a rule about scars rather than a rule about all disfigurement. How a particular injury is classified is the kind of question that turns on medical records and on how the injury actually looks, so treat the plain reading as a starting point, not an answer.

Why the $15,000 figure has not moved

Every other item in section 36 is written as a multiple of “the average weekly wage in the commonwealth at the date of the injury.” Loss of an eye is that wage times thirty-nine. Loss of hearing in both ears is times seventy-seven. Loss of both legs is times ninety-six. Those figures rise as wages rise, because the state average weekly wage is reset every year. Paragraph (k) is the exception: it is a flat dollar ceiling of $15,000. A disfigurement award therefore does not keep pace with wages the way the rest of the section does, which is worth knowing before comparing it to anything else in a comp case.

Paragraph (j), which covers “each loss of bodily function or sense” not listed elsewhere, is a different item and is often confused with (k). It pays up to the state average weekly wage times thirty-two per loss, and up to times eighty in total. It is about what a body can no longer do. Paragraph (k) is about how a body now looks.

Disfigurement in a Car Crash Case: Section 6D

Massachusetts car insurance starts with no-fault benefits, personal injury protection, and section 6D of chapter 231 is the gate between that system and a full injury claim against the other driver. It applies to “any action of tort brought as a result of bodily injury, sickness or disease, arising out of the ownership, operation, maintenance or use of a motor vehicle within this commonwealth by the defendant.” In those cases a plaintiff “may recover damages for pain and suffering” only if the reasonable and necessary medical expenses are “in excess of two thousand dollars”, unless the injury does one of five things. It must:

1. cause death,
2. consist “in whole or in part of loss of a body member”,
3. consist “in whole or in part of permanent and serious disfigurement”,
4. result in loss of sight or hearing as described in section 36 of chapter 152, or
5. consist of a fracture.

The word here is not “bodily disfigurement” but “permanent and serious disfigurement”, and there is no list of body parts. A scar on a leg, an arm or a back is not excluded by location. What the statute requires instead is two qualities: the disfigurement must be permanent, and it must be serious. Whether a particular scar meets both is a question of fact, and it is not settled by the person who has it.

This matters most for the injury that heals with a scar but without large medical bills. A deep cut closed in an emergency room and never treated again may not come close to $2,000 in expenses. If it leaves a permanent and serious scar, section 6D still allows a claim for pain and suffering. More on how that threshold fits the rest of a crash claim is in what a Massachusetts car accident claim is worth and in how personal injury protection works.

Answer Capsule

Massachusetts uses “disfigurement” in two statutes, and neither defines it. In workers compensation, M.G.L. c. 152, sec. 36(1)(k) pays a separate award for “bodily disfigurement” of up to $15,000, in an amount the Department of Industrial Accidents finds “proper and equitable”, on top of all other benefits; a disfigurement that is purely a scar is paid only if it is on the face, neck or hands. In a car crash case, M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 6D lets an injured person recover pain and suffering damages without $2,000 in medical expenses if the injury includes “permanent and serious disfigurement”, with no limit on where on the body it is. The same leg scar can earn nothing in comp and still open the door to pain and suffering in a crash claim.

The Two Meanings Side by Side

Question	Workers compensation, c. 152, sec. 36(1)(k)	Car crash claim, c. 231, sec. 6D
Words the statute uses	”bodily disfigurement"	"permanent and serious disfigurement”
What it does	Pays a separate cash award	Clears the threshold for pain and suffering damages
Does the text say permanent?	No	Yes, and serious
Where on the body	A purely scar-based disfigurement only on the face, neck or hands	No location limit in the text
How much	Up to $15,000, set by the Department of Industrial Accidents	No statutory figure; part of the damages a jury or settlement values
Who pays	The employer’s workers compensation insurer	The at-fault driver, usually through that driver’s insurer
Deadline	Claim within four years of knowing the injury is work related, c. 152, sec. 41	Suit within three years, c. 260, sec. 2A

Outside those two statutes the word has no special threshold role. In a dog bite case, M.G.L. c. 140, sec. 155 makes the owner or keeper liable for damage a dog does to “the body or property of any person”, subject to exceptions for a person who was trespassing, committing another tort, or teasing, tormenting or abusing the dog. Section 6D does not apply to a dog bite because it is limited to motor vehicle cases, so scarring from a bite is simply part of the damages, valued like any other harm. The same is true of a fall on someone’s property. More on the dog bite rules is in Massachusetts dog bite law and owner liability.

When One Injury Triggers Both Statutes

The two meanings meet in one common situation: a person hurt in a car crash while working. A delivery driver, a home health aide driving between clients or a technician on the way to a job who is hit by another car is covered by workers compensation, because the injury arose out of the job, and may also have a tort claim against the other driver.

Section 15 of chapter 152 deals with exactly this. Where the injury was “caused under circumstances creating a legal liability in some person other than the insured”, the employee is “entitled, without election, to the compensation and other benefits provided under this chapter.” Without election means the worker does not have to choose. Either the employee or the insurer may pursue the other driver, though the insurer may not do so until compensation has been paid and seven months have passed since the injury.

The money is then sorted by statute. The sum recovered from the other driver goes first to the benefit of the comp insurer, and if it is greater than what the insurer paid, the excess goes to the employee. Attorney’s fees are divided between insurer and employee in proportion to what each receives. Settlements of a third party case generally need approval after a hearing at which both the employee and the insurer can be heard.

For disfigurement, the practical result is that the scar is looked at twice, under two different rules. The comp side asks whether it is a bodily disfigurement and, if it is purely a scar, whether it is on the face, neck or hands. The crash side asks whether it is permanent and serious. A worker with a scar on the shin may have nothing under section 36(k) and still have a disfigurement that matters in the claim against the driver. The broader trade-offs of a work injury caused by an outsider are covered in workers comp settlement value by injury.

Steps That Protect a Disfigurement Claim

A scar changes over months, and the record of what it looked like, and when, is often the best evidence there is. These steps apply under either statute.

1. Photograph it early and on a schedule. Take clear photos in good light, with something for scale, from the first days and then monthly. A scar that fades or thickens tells its own story, and only photos taken at the time can show it.
2. Ask the treating provider to record it. A note describing the size, location, color and any contracture or tissue loss, and an opinion on whether it is permanent, is the kind of record both statutes depend on.
3. Keep every medical bill. In a crash case the $2,000 medical expense line in section 6D is an independent route past the threshold, so both routes should be documented.
4. Give notice and file on time in a work case. Section 41 of chapter 152 requires notice to the insurer or employer “as soon as practicable” and a claim within four years from the date the employee first became aware of the causal relationship between the disability and the employment.
5. Identify any third party. If someone other than the employer caused a work injury, such as another driver or the owner of a dangerous property, that claim runs on its own three-year clock under M.G.L. c. 260, sec. 2A.
6. Read any lump sum agreement closely. Under section 48 of chapter 152, once the insurer has accepted liability, a lump sum settlement does not redeem liability for medical or vocational rehabilitation benefits. Know what a proposed agreement covers before it is signed.

Why Fault Still Matters in the Crash Case

Workers compensation is a no-fault system: section 36 pays without anyone proving the employer was careless, and ordinary carelessness by the worker does not reduce it, as explained in workers comp when the injury was your fault. The crash claim is different. Under M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 85, an injured person’s negligence does not bar recovery if it “was not greater than the total amount of negligence attributable to the person or persons against whom recovery is sought”, but damages are “diminished in proportion” to that person’s own share. A permanent and serious scar may open the door to pain and suffering damages and still be valued against a finding that the injured driver was partly at fault. That interaction is explained in comparative negligence in Massachusetts.

Personal injury matters at Jim Glaser Law are handled on a contingency fee, meaning no attorney fee unless there is a recovery; costs and expenses are handled separately and are explained in the fee agreement before anything is signed. How fees work in a comp case, which the Commonwealth regulates separately, is set out in workers comp attorney fees in Massachusetts. The intake line is answered 24 hours a day at (617) JIM-WINS, and the first telephone consultation is free.

Key terms

• Bodily disfigurement: the phrase in M.G.L. c. 152, sec. 36(1)(k) for a change in appearance caused by a work injury, paid as a separate award of up to $15,000.
• Purely scar-based: the statute’s description of a disfigurement made up only of a scar, which section 36(k) pays only when it is on the face, neck or hands.
• Specific injury benefit: a set sum under section 36 for a listed permanent loss, such as the loss of an eye or of the use of a hand, paid on top of weekly benefits.
• Tort threshold: the rule in M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 6D that bars pain and suffering damages in a car crash case unless medical expenses pass $2,000 or the injury is one of five listed kinds.
• Third party claim: a lawsuit by an injured worker against someone other than the employer, allowed alongside comp benefits by M.G.L. c. 152, sec. 15.
• State average weekly wage: the Massachusetts average wage used to size most section 36 awards, reset each year, which the $15,000 disfigurement cap does not use.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: What does disfigurement mean in Massachusetts workers compensation?

A: It means “bodily disfigurement” under M.G.L. c. 152, sec. 36(1)(k): a change in appearance caused by a work injury, paid as a separate award of up to $15,000 in an amount the Department of Industrial Accidents finds proper and equitable. It is paid in addition to weekly benefits and any other section 36 award. A disfigurement that is purely a scar is paid only if it is on the face, neck or hands.

Q: Will workers comp pay for a scar on my leg or arm?

A: Not under the disfigurement paragraph, if the disfigurement is purely scar-based. Section 36(1)(k) says no amount is payable for disfigurement that is purely scar-based “unless such disfigurement is on the face, neck or hands.” The statute does not define “purely scar-based”, so a disfigurement involving more than a scar is a separate question. A leg or arm injury may still qualify for a loss of function award under other paragraphs of section 36.

Q: How much does Massachusetts workers comp pay for disfigurement?

A: Up to $15,000. The statute sets no formula below that ceiling; it leaves the figure to the decision maker’s judgment of what is “proper and equitable.” Unlike the rest of section 36, which is calculated as a multiple of the state average weekly wage, the disfigurement cap is a fixed dollar amount and does not rise with wages.

Q: Does a scar count as serious disfigurement after a car accident?

A: It can. M.G.L. c. 231, sec. 6D allows pain and suffering damages in a motor vehicle case without $2,000 in medical expenses if the injury “consists in whole or in part of permanent and serious disfigurement.” The statute names no body part, so a scar anywhere can qualify, but it must be both permanent and serious, and whether it is depends on the facts of the injury.

Q: What else gets past the $2,000 threshold in a Massachusetts car crash case?

A: Section 6D lists five kinds of injury that clear it regardless of medical expenses: one that causes death, the loss of a body member, permanent and serious disfigurement, loss of sight or hearing of the kind described in c. 152, sec. 36, or a fracture. Otherwise, reasonable and necessary medical expenses must exceed $2,000.

Q: Can I get workers comp and also sue the driver who hit me while I was working?

A: Often, yes. Under M.G.L. c. 152, sec. 15, when someone other than the employer is legally responsible, the employee receives comp benefits “without election” and the employee or the insurer may pursue that person. The comp insurer is repaid from the recovery and any excess goes to the employee. The disfigurement is then judged under section 36(k) on the comp side and under section 6D on the crash side.

Q: Is there a deadline for a disfigurement claim?

A: Yes, and it depends on the claim. A workers compensation claim must be filed within four years from when the employee first became aware the injury was caused by the job, under c. 152, sec. 41, with notice given as soon as practicable. A tort claim, such as one against a driver or a dog owner, generally must be filed within three years under c. 260, sec. 2A.

Q: Is Jimmy Knows AI giving me legal advice?

A: No. This is general information about Massachusetts law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney client relationship. Whether any of it applies to your situation depends on facts a lawyer would need to review. For advice about your own matter, speak with a licensed Massachusetts attorney.