General Injury Articles | Joe Miller Law, Ltd.

Posture and Workers’ Compensation

Poor posture is a common source of back pain, neck pain, and spine pain. Posture generally focuses on the head, shoulders, and back – whether we’re standing, sitting, or lying down. Poor posture is a type of musculoskeletal disorder according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Poor posture can affect the muscles …

What Is Vocational Rehabilitation?

Injured workers may need to consult with different types of therapists. It can be confusing to understand which therapist does what. Generally, physical therapists provide exercises and treatments to help your body recover from your injuries. Occupational therapists help injury victims learn to do everyday tasks and to work with assistive devices. Vocational therapists are supposed to work to help an injured worker return to work.

Physical Therapy and Workers’ Compensation?

Many workers who have physical injuries such as broken bones, back pain, an amputation, disc damage, or muscle pain spend a number of sessions with a physical therapist. Workplace victims often treat with a specialist such as an orthopedist or other surgeon before treating with a physical therapist. The victims may have surgery though many people in North Carolina and Virginia who treat with a physical therapist have not had surgery.

Fingertip, Finger, and Hand Injuries in Workers’ Compensation Cases

Finger and hand injuries are all too common in the workplace. According to Occupational Health and Safety and data from the US Bureau of Labor – “Of the 286,810 non-fatal occupational injuries to upper extremities in 2018 involving days away from work in private industry, 123,990 involved hands, which is more than 43 percent.” Human hands have 27 bones and 30 muscles – so there’s a lot that can go wrong.

Workers Compensation For Benefits When You Hurt Your Back

One of the most common types of injuries for workers is back pain. Back pain can occur in almost every profession. Any worker who does physical labor such as construction work, agricultural work, or industrial work is relying on their back almost constantly. Workers who stand most of the days such as waitresses, nurses, and other workers often develop back pain. Even if you sit all day using the computer or doing clerical work, you’re likely to develop back pain.

Workers Compensation For Benefits When You Injure Your Arm

There are very few jobs a worker can do if his/her arm is injured. Your arm is also known as your “upper extremity” in workers’ compensation terms. Workers need their arms to serve food, treat patients, drive, operate machinery, do construction work, or type at a computer. Arm injuries-which often include shoulder injuries – are due to either an acute or chronic injury. Acute injuries are normally injuries due to a specific event such as a workplace accident. Chronic injuries are typically wear and tear injuries where the deterioration just becomes too difficult to work with. Unfortunately, under most circumstances, “wear and tear” injuries are not compensable unless they are made symptomatic by a specific, identifiable, traumatic event such as a slip, trip or fall. In Virginia, a sudden, severe pain, accompanied by a “pop” or some other clear indication of a single event—even without a slip, trip or fall— may be sufficient, so long as it was caused by a risk associated with your employment.

Pain Scale Tests – Part Two

This is the second part of our discussion on the use of pain scale tests in North Carolina and Virginia workers’ compensation cases. As a reminder, pain scales are a way that doctors and others interested in your workers’ compensation case try to measure your pain. The results of pain scales test can affect your right to continued treatment and other work injury rights, such as pain management treatment.

Pain Scale Tests – Part One

One of the difficulties in workers’ compensation cases is trying to measure the worker’s pain. Many parts of a medical diagnosis are objective. Disorders can be seen on X-Rays, CT scans, and MRIs. Diseases and other medical problems can be seen when doctors read blood test and other lab test results like stress tests. Medical problems can be confirmed when doctors perform surgeries.

Types of Knee Injuries

Knee injuries happen at work for many different reasons. Workers may be injured in a car accident, they may be hurt if something falls on their leg, they slip and fall, or they may be hurt through for many different reasons such as twisting, pulling, or moving their leg in the wrong direction at the wrong time. Knee injuries may be due to chronic issues or they may be due to an acute injury.

Types of Shoulder Injuries

Workers are constantly using their shoulders in many jobs such as industrial work, construction work, and agricultural work. Nurses, waitresses, and many other employees also regularly use their shoulders at work. Injuries to the shoulders generally happen either through some sort of acute incident such as a fall, tear, a forceful blow to the shoulder, or another immediate event. Shoulders can also be damaged over time through constant wear and tear. That one extra movement at work can affect a weak shoulder by causing a lifetime of chronic pain.