Our hands have many tendons, bones, muscles, and other tissue that could be injured. Especially in jobs involving machinery or power tools, one slip or accident could result in some of the most traumatic injuries.
Fortunately, compensation is often available. Our lawyers can help you claim Workers’ Compensation benefits to cover the cost of medical bills, certain lost wages, and some additional payments if you suffered an amputation. We can also potentially file a lawsuit to cover additional compensation, like pain and suffering damages.
Call the hand injury and degloving lawyers at Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945 to get started in a free case evaluation today.
What Hand Injuries Are Covered Under Workers’ Compensation in Lancaster?
All work-related injuries should be covered under Workers’ Comp as long as you did not cause them intentionally or through drug use, alcohol use, or illegal actions. This can mean coverage for not only traumatic injuries that happen in one sudden accident, but also ongoing repetitive stress injuries like tendonitis and carpal tunnel syndrome.
People usually associate Workers’ Comp benefits with blue-collar or physical labor jobs, but these benefits truly apply to nearly any employee across the state. Especially since many hand injuries are the result of surprising and often “freak accidents,” you can rest assured that there should be compensation available, no matter how your injury happened.
Common hand injuries include…
- Broken fingers
- Sprains and strains
- Carpal tunnel and other repetitive use injuries
- Tears
- Serious cuts and abrasions
- Avulsions and degloving injuries
- Amputation of the fingers or hand.
Does Workers’ Comp Pay for Degloving Injuries in Lancaster?
Degloving injuries that occur because of work conditions should be covered under Workers’ Comp. This means that, as long as you suffered an accidental injury during work tasks, Workers’ Comp should pay for it.
Many degloving injuries happen in the same sort of ways that amputations and other serious injuries occur, such as from machinery or power tool injuries. However, they can also happen in strange ways, such as getting a finger ring caught on something.
In a degloving or other avulsion injury, there is a traumatic tearing off. This might mean just the skin, but it can pull off fingers as well, resulting in amputations. Workers’ Compensation can pay for medical care to reattach things, as well as other benefits.
What Benefits Are Covered for Hand Injuries?
Workers’ Compensation typically pays three areas of benefits:
- Medical benefits to cover the full cost of your necessary treatment
- Lost wages to cover (typically) 2/3 of your lost earnings, depending on certain limitations
- Additional benefits if you suffered a permanent amputation or lost function.
The amount of these damages varies from case to case, with many hand injuries involving lower benefits by way of medical treatment than for indemnity or wage-loss benefits.
However, very serious hand injuries like degloving can involve extensive medical care to reattach lost fingers, skin grafts to replace lost skin, and potentially even lost function benefits if you ultimately lose function or require surgical amputations anyway.
What Damages Are Paid for Finger and Hand Amputations?
As mentioned, there are specific damages paid in addition to lost wages and medical care costs for amputations. There is a chart in the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act detailing the number of weeks paid for each lost finger:
- 100 weeks for a lost thumb
- 50 weeks for a lost index finger
- 40 weeks for a lost middle finger
- 30 weeks for a lost ring finger – including ring avulsion, a form of degloving injury common to the ring finger
- 28 weeks for a lost pinky finger.
Typically, the rate paid during these weeks is 2/3 of your lost wages, though there is a cap set at the statewide average weekly wage and a floor at half that value.
If you lose up to half of your finger, you get half that number of weeks’ worth of payments instead. If you lost between half and the whole finger, it counts as a whole loss. If you lose more than one finger, you add the times together.
As some examples:
- Loss of half your index finger would pay 25 weeks.
- Loss of 2/3 of your thumb would pay the full 100 weeks.
- Loss of a pinky and ring finger would pay 58 weeks..
When Do You Have to Report a Hand Injury at Work?
Work-related injuries are typically supposed to be reported within 21 days of the injury. However, you technically get up to 120 days to report your injury and still be able to make a claim.
In any case, you should really report as soon as you can. This will help you get your medical care covered, including not only the emergency medical treatment but also the ongoing care you need, such as physical therapy. If you delay your claim, you also will not have lost-wage benefits until you report the injury and your claim is accepted.
Even though you have 21 days, your employer gets 21 days after that to respond, which they can potentially extend an additional 90 days if they start paying your benefits now. Ultimately, it can take longer than this to get your benefits activated if the employer denies the claim and our lawyers for hand and degloving injuries have to take your case to court.
For that reason, you should never delay in calling us and reporting your injury to your employer to get your claim moving.
Can You File a Lawsuit for Work-Related Hand Injuries?
Lawsuits against your employer are typically not allowed for work-related injuries. Instead, workers are expected to rely on Workers’ Compensation.
This rule only applies to employees. Independent contractors are technically self-employed and can therefore sue other “bosses” or “clients” for injuries they caused.
Additionally, these rules leave open lawsuits against third-party defendants. For example, you can sue the manufacturer of defective safety gloves or power tools if their defective product was what caused your injury. This also leaves open the possibility of lawsuits for work-related auto accidents and other injuries caused by third parties.
In a Workers’ Compensation case, you never get full damages because pain and suffering and 1/3 of your lost wages are not covered. In a lawsuit, you can recover those additional damages, so it is typically worth suing when possible.
Contact Our Hand and Degloving Injury Lawyers in Lancaster Today
Call (267) 651-7945 to get in touch with Cardamone Law’s hand and degloving injury attorneys today.
