By Peter DePaolis
Attorney
Attorney
Carpal tunnel is an example of an injury that can be considered under a cumulative trauma case. Jobs that include data entry and performing repetitive motions can be the cause. You can be diagnosed by an orthopedic surgeon or hand specialist. Having a diagnosis is essential for a workers compensation case. Watch as attorney David Schloss explains what to do in the case of an occupational disease.
Click image to play video
Video Transcription
Carpal tunnel is compensable depending upon the jurisdiction, that’s what’s called a cumulative trauma case. The most common example of that, that people may know of is someone who’s doing data entry, and it’s repetitive motion that causes that. There are orthopedic surgeons and sometimes hand specialists who diagnose that. We need for purposes of a workers compensation case, we need that doctor to connect the dots, we need the doctor to relate the carpal tunnel condition, and perhaps the need for surgery, to the work that the employee was doing at the time. It need not be a discrete accident in order to be compensable in some instances. It can be cumulative over time, so how do you report that? You may not be able to because there’s no discreet accident, so what you may need to do is have us assist you in filing an occupational disease or cumulative trauma claim. It’s also true that carpal tunnel cases are not limited to data entry work, I have represented union members, painters for example, who use repetitive motion when they’re doing their work. And their doctors have related that type of repetitive stress to a carpal tunnel condition that may require surgery. We’ve been successful in winning those types of cases as well. For more information please go to our website Koonz.com.