Pennsylvania Attorney for Repetitive Stress Work Injuries

When we think of work injuries and workplace accidents, we often think of a single event. Before the accident, you were fine, and after the accident, you were injured. With repetitive stress injuries, things might be getting worse and worse over time, until one day you realize you are injured. These kinds of injuries are still valid for Workers’ Comp claims, and our lawyers can help you with them.

In a repetitive stress injury case, there is still an “injury” to speak of, whether it be strained ligaments, “tennis elbow,” carpal tunnel, or some other injury. Additionally, the injury still resulted from work tasks, making it “work-related.” This is what we need for Workers’ Compensation coverage, allowing you to pursue compensation even without a specific date of injury.

For help with your case, reach out to Cardamone Law’s Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers by calling us at (267) 651-7945.

What is a Repetitive Stress Injury?

If you work on an assembly line and have to continuously reach your arms out for a product, lifting the product into a basket, for many hours per day, you are likely to injure your arms or shoulders or neck – maybe even your low back if you are bending too. This would be a repetitive work injury – something that happens over time, not just in one moment.

Repetitive stress injuries typically do not have one single event or accident that “caused” the injury, but rather using the same muscles, joints, tendons, and ligaments in the same way every day eventually gets to a point where the pain is too severe or the body simply will not move the same anymore. These injuries are just as real as any other injury, even without an “acute” injury or specific inciting incident.

Common Examples of Work-Related Repetitive Stress Injuries

One common example of a repetitive stress work injury would be doing lifting at work, over and over. After a few weeks or months, your low back is hurting. You go home and it subsides a bit, then you go back to work and start lifting again and your back pain comes back. Just because you did not hurt your back by lifting one box, causing you to fall to the floor, does not mean you do not have a work-related injury.

Another common example is “tennis elbow,” which does not have to result from actual tennis playing. Repeatedly moving your arm at the elbow and putting strain on the joints and ligaments can lead to ongoing pain and difficulty moving your arm, resulting in a repetitive stress injury. A similar phenomenon is “trucker’s elbow,” which often happens to truckers from the motion of steering.

Lastly, one of the most common repetitive stress injuries that plague office workers is carpal tunnel syndrome. This affects the wrist with repetitive writing and typing tasks and can truly interfere with your ability to work if left untreated.

Whether you have any of these specific injuries, similar injuries, or other injuries from repetitive stress or repetitive use, our attorneys for repetitive stress work injuries may be able to help you file Workers’ Compensation claims for the injuries and get you lost earnings and medical coverage.

Can Repetitive Strains Cause Traumatic Work-Related Injuries?

In some cases, there can be a combination of both repetitive use injuries and a traumatic injury. If you have nagging back pain from lifting over and over at work, but then one day, you lift a box and it causes incredible pain, that is likely a combination of both a repetitive use injury and a traumatic injury. You may be entitled to Workers’ Comp for the effects of the repetitive use injury as well as the sudden, acute back injury.

In other situations, the fact that you are weakened by a repetitive stress injury that you might not have fully become aware of could be what leads to an injury. For example, if you have been developing a repetitive stress injury in your forearm while working on an assembly line, and it causes you to drop something on your foot and break a bone, you now have a completely separate traumatic injury, plus you are fully aware of the underlying repetitive stress injury. Both injuries should ostensibly be compensated under Workers’ Compensation as work-related injuries.

Benefits for Repetitive Stress/Repetitive Strain Injuries at Work in Pennsylvania

When you cannot work because of a work-related injury, you could be entitled to two major areas of benefits: medical coverage and wage-loss benefits. In certain situations involving a permanent loss of function, you may also get “specific loss” benefits, but this is not likely to apply to a repetitive stress injury and might only apply to other simultaneous injuries involving lost limbs, lost function, lost eyesight, lost hearing, or facial scarring that might occur at the same time as a repetitive stress injury.

With medical care coverage, Workers’ Comp pays for any care needed to treat your repetitive stress work injury. You may be required to use certain doctors chosen by your employer, but if you need to see specialists, you might be able to choose your own. After 90 days of treatment, you can also choose your own physician or care provider.

Wage-loss benefits cover damages while you are unable to work. With many repetitive stress injuries, some level of light-duty work is still permitted. When you are totally disabled by an injury, you typically get 2/3 of your old average weekly wage before the accident. If you can make some money working light duty or alternative tasks, then 2/3 of the difference between old and new wages is paid as benefits instead. These only last as long as the injury does, which can be complicated in cases where the injury might subside then re-emerge after using it more, and your missed time at work might not be consecutive.

With total loss of function in a limb, finger, or other body part, specific damages are paid based on a chart in the Workers’ Comp Act’s § 306(c), with each injury being assigned a certain number of weeks’ worth of benefits.

How to Determine the Date of a Repetitive Use Injury

Giving your employer notice of your injury will be an important issue. An injured worker has to give notice of injury to the employer within 120 days of the injury or the claim is barred forever. Knowing the “date” of your repetitive stress injury is therefore important.

Technically, this requirement gives you 120 days from the date of injury or the date the injured worker first thought the condition may be work-related. With repetitive trauma work injuries, we can often use the last day of work as the date of injury. The idea here is that each day is a new injury and that the last day of work would be the most recent injury. That will also extend to counting the start date for the 3-year statute of limitations for filing a Claim Petition.

Sometimes, however, the injured worker has a repetitive trauma injury but continues to work. It would be administratively too burdensome to keep changing the date of injury in this situation. As such, the date of injury is often the date the injury is reported to the employer, or when a doctor first examines the injured worker and diagnoses a work-related injury. This means that if you suspect an injury, you should get to a doctor and start considering a Workers’ Comp claim as soon as you can to avoid working while injured and making your case more complicated.

What Are the Benefits of Hiring a Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Attorney at the Earliest Opportunity?

Remember, you don’t have to be injured in some awful accident or crash. The daily wear and tear from doing something at work, over time, can also be a work injury that our lawyers can handle for you. If you are not sure about what to do in your case, it’s very important to call Cardamone Law. There are important time limits in Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation, and you do not want to miss them by delaying a phone call to a lawyer. Fees are contingent, so you pay us nothing out of your own pocket.

Call Our Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers for Repetitive Stress/Repetitive Use Injuries Today

Contact Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945 for a free review of your case with our attorneys for repetitive stress work injuries.