Injuries involving nerve damage can be hard to prove and harder to get compensation for. The injury may be hard to detect, causing Workers’ Compensation Judges and employers to doubt the evidence of injury in the first place, let alone the severity.
When you suffer a serious nerve injury at work, you should have a lawyer on your side who can deal with the intricacies of these cases. Our attorneys can seek medical reviews from specialists who are equipped to discuss your injury in the right terms to get the claim accepted. We can help in all kinds of nerve injury cases, from ulnar neuropathy to CRPS.
For a free case review, call the Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Lawyers at Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945 right away.
What Nerve Injuries Are Covered Under Workers’ Compensation
Workers’ Compensation is designed to cover all kinds of work-related injuries. This means that whether your nerve damage is the result of a larger injury or it is the only injury you suffered, you can seek benefits for that injury.
The core requirement that has to be met is that your injury is work-related. This means that it happened in the course of carrying out your work duties.
Ulnar Neuropathy
Ulnar neuropathy is damage to the ulnar nerve – the nerve that runs along your ulna in your forearm, through the back side of your forearm, and past your elbow. Neuropathy can be related to
- Damage to the ulnar nerve
- Compression or entrapment of the nerve
- Cubital tunnel syndrome from stress near the elbow
- Guyon’s canal syndrome from stress near the wrist.
This injury can stem from overuse, injury, and all kinds of repetitive stress issues at work, potentially leading to long-term recovery needs, surgical needs, and difficulty returning to work at full capacity.
CRPS
One uncommon type of nerve damage that can lead to serious pain, discomfort, weakness, and other struggles is Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). This often causes pain, oversensitivity, temperature changes, and appearance changes in affected areas, usually stemming from another injury.
CRPS comes in two types:
- Type I is sometimes called reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) and stems from no diagnosable nerve damage.
- Type II is sometimes called causalgia and stems from other recorded nerve damage in the affected area.
Brachial Plexus Injuries
Stress, strain, blunt force trauma, falls, and other injuries to the neck/shoulder can cause damage to the bundle of nerves that runs through there – the brachial plexus. Serious injuries to the brachial plexus can lead to being stuck with your neck bent to the side and loss of sensation or use in the arm.
These injuries can cause ongoing paralysis that might be reversed through surgery or could lead to continual disability.
Sciatica
The sciatic nerve runs from your lower back, along your buttocks, through to your leg. Impingement of the nerves in your lower back (lumbar) can lead to flaring pain down your leg that makes it almost impossible to sit or stand, and definitely hard to concentrate on work.
Sciatica can stem from long work hours and strain in all kinds of industries, potentially leading to therapy and surgical needs before you can return to work.
Carpal Tunnel
Carpal tunnel injuries occur when compression of the nerve in your wrist causes pain and numbness in the wrist and hand. This sometimes requires surgery and can occur from all kinds of jobs, including “desk jobs” that we do not usually think of as participating in Workers’ Comp coverage. Even these kinds of work-related injuries should entitle you to coverage.
Filing a Workers’ Compensation Claim for Nerve Injuries
When you get hurt or notice your injury is severe enough to seek treatment, you can start your claim.
Notify Employer
You have to notify your employer within 21 days of the injury, though you can technically still file notice within 120 days of the accident. This starts your initial claim, where your employer files with their insurance carrier and decides whether to pay the claim or not.
Continue Medical Care
You should seek immediate medical care and keep following through with recommended care while your case plays out. In the first 90 days of treatment, you usually have to use a doctor your employer has chosen.
However, some injuries require neurologists and other specialists. If there is not one listed on your employer’s list of “panel doctors,” you can go outside of the list to choose your own specialist.
File a Formal Claim
If your employer denies your claim, our Workers’ Comp attorneys can file a formal claim with the Workers’ Comp Office of Adjudication. This starts with a Claim Petition.
Workers’ Comp Hearings
Before formal hearings, we will need to obtain medical records, doctors’ reports, and other records of your injury and the cause to prove that your injury is both work-related and disabling. Your employer can also demand that you see doctors they chose to examine you in an IME (independent medical exam) so they can get evidence against your claim.
Claims are often settled before the final hearing, but if not, they go to the Workers’ Comp Judge for a final decision.
Potential Lawsuits
You may also be able to file a lawsuit for an injury if an outside third party caused it. You cannot sue your employer, but you can sue equipment and machinery manufacturers, drivers, and other outside parties.
This can result in pain and suffering and other damages that Workers’ Comp does not pay.
FAQs for Nerve Damage Injuries at Work in Philadelphia
When Can You File for Nerve Injuries at Work?
As long as the injury becomes serious enough to cause you to go to the hospital and get treatment, the treatment should be covered if the injury is work-related. If it causes you to miss at least 7 days of work, then you also potentially qualify for wage-loss benefits – i.e., ongoing disability benefits through Workers’ Comp.
Do You Need a Single Accident or Can You Sue for Injuries Over Time?
Repetitive stress and repetitive strain injuries are common causes of work-related injuries in Workers’ Comp cases. You do not need to point to one, single, acute accident to file a Work Comp claim, and you can file for injuries that get worse over time until they become noticeable or unbearable.
How Long Do Disability Payments Last Under Workers’ Comp?
If you are totally unable to work because of your injury, wage-loss benefits can last up to 104 weeks before you undergo mandatory exams to determine whether you are still disabled, and to what degree. If you are found to be under 35% total body impairment at these “impairment rating evaluations” (IRE), then you are switched to partial disability, which can last for another 500 weeks, max.
You only stay on benefits as long as you continue to lose wages because of your injury. If you return to full-time work, your employer can file to stop your benefits.
Call Our Workers’ Compensation Lawyers in Philadelphia Today
For your free case evaluation, call the Workers’ Comp attorneys at Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945.
