Workers Compensation Claims for Repetitive Stress Injuries

People often suffer repetitive stress injuries in the workplace, as this type of injury can occur in the context of a variety of occupations.  Whether you are a clerical worker, a manual laborer, or a health care worker, you may be at risk of suffering repetitive stress injuries. 

While repetitive stress injuries often are thought of as carpal tunnel syndrome, they also involve a number of other types of injuries, such as back strain and damage to fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, knees, joints, and/or hips.  If you have suffered a repetitive stress injury in your workplace, then you may be entitled to workers compensation.

How Repetitive Stress Injuries Occur

Repetitive stress injuries can result from any sort of repetitive body movement that is necessitated by your work duties.  If you use any part of your body in a similar, repetitive motion every day, such as your wrists, shoulders, back, and/or knees, you can suffer a repetitive stress injury. 

Symptoms of Repetitive Stress Injuries

Some common symptoms of repetitive stress injuries include tenderness, pain, and inflammation, often to the neck, shoulders, back, arms, elbows, wrists, and/or fingers.  Other types of symptoms resulting from repetitive stress injuries are numbness, pins and needles in hands and/or arms, muscle spasms, and stiffness of joints and extremities.

Common Types of Repetitive Stress Injuries

Some of the most common types of repetitive stress injuries include:

• Carpal tunnel syndrome, also known as computeritis, involves painful inflammation and swelling of the hands, fingers, and/or wrists resulting from overuse, usually due to typing.
• Tennis elbow is a condition resulting in pain and tenderness of the outer part of the elbow, and can occur not only from sports, but from the repetitive arm motions of mechanics or painters.
• Rotator cuff tears, or the tearing of the muscles / tendons in the shoulder, might occur when one’s work involves repetitive overhead motion and/or lifting.
• Tendonitis develops when a tendon, or the sheath surrounding a tendon, becomes inflamed.
• Bursitis involves the inflammation of bursae, which provide cushions between tendons and bones throughout your body.

Filing a Claim for Repetitive Stress Injuries

If you have suffered a repetitive stress injury in the workplace, which has resulted in severe symptoms that cause you to be unable to work or perform everyday tasks, you may be entitled to workers compensation benefits.  Eligibility for workers compensation benefits, and the exact procedures for filing a claim vary substantially from state to state.

Denials

If you have filed a claim for workers compensation and have been denied, you should take immediate action to appeal that denial.  Again, the procedures and timeframes in which you must appeal or request a review of a denial of workers compensation benefits will vary greatly from one state to the next.  However, you will have several opportunities to challenge your denial of benefits, both administratively, and through the appropriate court system, if necessary.

Due to the fact that it may be more challenging to prove the disabling nature of a repetitive stress injury than the effects of a work-related accident, as well as the complexity of state workers compensation laws, an experienced workers compensation attorney can be invaluable in mounting a successful workers compensation claim.