Under California workers compensation law, there are two types of injuries that are covered as work-related, compensable injuries. These include traumatic events which cause injuries and repetitive-use or repeated stress injuries.
If your injury is deemed work-related, you may be entitled to compensation which includes payment of your medical bills resulting from the work injury, along with temporary and permanent disability payments. Temporary disability benefits are designed to compensate you for the time you missed from work as a consequence of the injury. Permanent disability benefits are designed to compensate you for the potential permanent nature and lasting effects of your work injury.
If you have been injured, and believe your injuries are work-related, contact California workers compensation attorneys Kneisler & Schondel today. Due to the complex nature of work injury claims, it is advantageous to have experienced attorneys fighting for your rights to compensation.
Work Injuries Resulting from a Traumatic Event
The first category of work-related injury and the category that most injuries tend to fall into includes injuries resulting from a traumatic event. Some examples of these injuries include:
- Falling at work and spraining your ankle
- Lifting a heavy object and injuring your back
- Having your hand crushed while in the process of operating a machine
- Getting injured in a car accident while driving as part of your assigned job duties
- Being splashed in the face by a harmful chemical that results in a chemical burns
- Suffering a laceration to a finger while operating machinery and requiring stitches or surgery
Work Injuries Resulting from Repetitive Use or Repeated Exposure
Another category of work injury involves injuries that occur due to repetitive use or repeated exposure. Repetitive use injuries typically include things like the development of carpal tunnel syndrome in one or both hands due to such things as data entry work. You may also have a claim for repetitive use if you develop a back injury over time due to repetitive lifting requirements of your work. One common example of a repeated exposure injury is hearing loss that gradually develops over time due to continued exposure to loud noises at work.
Other Types of Work-Related Injuries
There are other kinds of work-related injuries which do not necessarily fall neatly into one of the above categories. The most common example of this is a psychological injury that could result from either a traumatic work event (such as witnessing something severely disturbing) or which could come about due to repeated harassment at work. Sometimes, these types of injuries may also have a physical component beyond just a psychological one—for example, stress leading to a heart attack.
Proving Your Injury is Work-Related
In order for the injury to be considered work-related and therefore compensable, the injury must both occur in the course of your employment and also arise out of your employment. Generally, the work environment must have either caused or contributed to your injury for it to be deemed compensable. Proving these elements can be easy and obvious in most cases. For example, if you injure your back while at work lifting a heavy object. In other situations, it may be more difficult to prove that you were injured both in the course of and arising out of your employment. One example of a more complicated case to prove might involve an employee who suffered a hernia as a result of heavy lifting at work but didn’t notice the hernia until he was at home.
Due to the complex nature of the California workers compensation system, it is important to hire an attorney who is familiar with workers compensation cases and has experience handling cases from start to finish. Since there are many issues in determining whether or not an injury is work-related, you will want experienced attorneys on your side, such as the California workers compensation attorneys at Kneisler & Schondel. Contact the law office of Kneisler & Schondel today to get started with your workers compensation case. Because there are certain deadlines that must be met when filing workers compensation cases, it is important to contact legal counsel as soon as possible.