Understand the Compensable Injuries Under New York’s Workers’ Compensation Laws
If you’ve ever suffered an injury while working, you may have wondered if you could or should file a workers’ compensation claim. Getting hurt on the job is bad enough without having to worry about medical bills piling up or missed wages.
Luckily, in most cases, you have a legal entitlement to financial benefits should you sustain an injury while performing your job duties. While workers’ compensation laws can certainly get complicated, there are some basic types of injuries that are typically covered.
Generally, All Accidents That Happen on the Job Are Compensable
If you suffer an injury while performing your job duties, chances are that injury qualifies as a compensable claim under workers’ compensation laws.
The baseline rule about work injuries is that accidents that occur within the scope of one’s employment are eligible for workers’ comp benefits. As long as you were engaging in job-related activities when the injury occurred, it is likely compensable.
Work-From-Home Injuries
Work-from-home injuries are evaluated by a stricter standard. For example, if you trip and fall while walking to your cubicle in the office, that would be compensable.
However, if you leave your desk to use your home bathroom and trip and fall on the way, that may not be compensable. Accidents that happen at home will have to be specifically working on actual work: if you’re sitting in the chair typing and you fall out of your chair.
Repetitive Stress Injuries
There are also what are referred to as repetitive stress claims. A common example is having to type all day. An injury happens because you do the same thing over and over, and your body starts to wear out.
Construction workers who are constantly on their knees can have knee injuries. Certified nurses and nursing assistants who are constantly moving and lifting patients will often have back and/or shoulder problems. A medical doctor must properly document any repetitive stress or overuse injuries.
Fatal Injuries
Also, the injury is compensable if someone dies as a result of a work-related injury or if somebody has a verified compensable injury and passes away because of that work-related injury, which is called a consequential death: injuries related to death because the death occurred on the job or is a result of the workers’ compensation case already found to be compensable.
It could be someone having surgery on their knee, and they die on the operating table, or someone has an injury that’s put them into a wheelchair, and they die prematurely because they’ve gotten diabetes and hypertension by being in the wheelchair. In this case, the family may be eligible for their loved ones’ workers’ compensation death benefits.
What Happens if You Are at Fault for Your Injuries?
New York State is a no-fault state. That means the fault is not taken into consideration except if the person is drunk or on drugs.
Insurance companies would look at the specific or particular circumstances surrounding the injury. Also, if someone has what we consider an idiopathic condition, a disease or condition with no known cause.
For example, if someone happens to faint on the job and the fainting is not related to environmental circumstances like the room being hot and having no air. If, however, someone faints for a non-work-related reason and when they pass out, they fall and hit their head on a work desk, the injuries that stem from hitting the head, the head injury could be considered a workers’ compensation case.
If they had fainted at home, they wouldn’t have had a work desk to hit their head on.
Workers’ Compensation Claims Do Not Depend On Location
A workers’ compensation claim does not need to be at the physical place of employment to qualify, especially during SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks. Since March 2020, many people worked from home. Thus, work-from-home injuries may be covered, although there are stricter standards.
If you are on a business trip and get injured sometime during the trip, you can be entitled to workers’ compensation benefits. Salespeople on sales calls are covered. If injured, even attorneys traveling to and from the court would be covered.
For more information on Workers’ Compensation Issues In New York, an initial consultation is your next best step. Contact our workers comp lawyers for the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling today.
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