Deep Dive: Workers’ Compensation in Virginia!
As personal injury attorneys, we routinely field questions about workers’ compensation.
In the state of Virginia, the law requires the majority of employers to carry workers’ compensation insurance in an attempt to cover their employees in the event a workplace injury takes place. While the policy itself helps to shield the employer from any type of civil suit and aims to provide the employee with benefits – the latter is typically limited and often terribly hard to obtain.
Unfortunately, while it would appear that the state of Virginia is very forward-thinking in terms of compensating injured employees, three types of injuries are not recognized by the state, those being: gradual injuries, repetitive injuries, or cumulative injuries. Furthermore, Virginia does not recognize injuries they feel could be caused by outside-of-work activities as well such as bending, sitting, or standing.
One main factor of workers’ compensation to keep in mind, is that if you or a loved one is injured at work, you must report the injury to your employer within thirty days to be fully eligible for compensation.
If there is a justifiable reason for not doing so, it must be documented and presented when possible. Please, and we cannot stress this enough, do not assume that your injury is minor and that it will go away on its own – unless you’ve had a consultation with your primary care physician and have been cleared, it’s important to take any injury seriously.
Will My Injury Be Covered? What Should I Do?
In the state of Virginia, you must be able to prove three separate factors in order for any injuries to be covered under the Virginia Workers’ Compensation laws, those are:
- Your Injury Was Caused By an Accident/Specific Event: Virginia law specifies that there must be a ‘structural’ change in your body to constitute an injury. For example, if you’re at work, and while you attempt to lift a heavy box, you feel a pop in your back, or a tear in your shoulder, that would fall underneath the category of an injury caused by a certain task.
- Your Injury Was Directly Related To Your Employment: It’s important to be able to prove that the injury/injuries in question were directly caused by and related to your employment. For instance, if you fell down the stairs at your job, that would not be covered by the state of Virginia, because there’s a high likelihood that you could’ve suffered that injury anywhere. That same situation would be a lot different if you fell down the stairs at your job because you had a box or a piece of equipment in your hands that disallowed you the opportunity to properly see the stairs.
- Your Injury Occurred During the Scope of Your Employment: When you hear ‘during the course and scope’ it means that the injury took place while you were gainfully employed and in a place that you were supposed to be due to your job requirements. This does not cover whatever path you choose to take to get to and from work.
In Virginia, the workers’ compensation benefits laws can also cover preexisting conditions if you’re able to prove that the injury sustained made the preexisting injury worse through aggravation. With that said, many insurance companies will likely attempt to dispute these claims, so if you find yourself in that position, it would be best to consult with one of your workers’ compensation attorneys.
As we mentioned above, repetitive injuries are NOT covered by the state of Virginia and their Workers’ Compensation Act. However, there is one exception to this and that’s Carpal Tunnel Syndrome. If doctors can prove that you or a loved one has contracted Carpal Tunnel Syndrome due to your job requirements, you may be able to move forward with a claim.
What About Work-Related Diseases? Or Psychological Injuries? What Should I Do?
These are both great questions – let’s break them down one at a time!
In Virginia, if you’ve been diagnosed with a disease that can be directly linked to your employment, you may be entitled to receive benefits underneath the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act. There are three main categories of diseases that are recognized, those are occupational diseases, ordinary diseases of life, and presumptive diseases.
Proving each is quite different and can become very complex – if you or a loved one believes that you’ve contracted a disease due to your time employed at a particular company/location, it’d be best to give us a call today. Just click here to get the call started!
Psychological injuries on the other hand are a bit different. The law in Virginia states that you can recover compensation for a psychological injury only if the injury itself is the result of a covered physical injury.
Let’s go back to our previous example about falling down the stairs – if you fall down the stairs at your job because you were unable to see where you were going, and now whenever you go near a staircase or have to go downstairs you have incredibly challenging panic attacks and develop depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you may be able to file a claim. Another example would be if you or a loved one has lost a limb in a life-altering accident that took place at work – the loss of the limb itself would be enough to lead to psychological conditions like PTSD that would require mental health care.
There is one more scenario that is applicable to this situation, and that’s something called Sudden Shock or Fright. This would apply to a traumatic incident taking place at your jobs, such as a burglary, or a robbery. This area of the law is still developing, so make sure to check back with us for any updates and potential changes.
How Do I File a Claim? What Do I Do? Help!
We’re more than happy to help! You must file your claim with the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission within two years of the initial accident itself. Regardless of if you’re being paid lost wage benefits or if your medical treatment is being paid, you still need to file with this commission. Sadly, many individuals who’ve been injured at work end up losing their benefits because they don’t file properly.
One important piece of information to remember – the date of filing is the date that it was received by the VWCC.
You or a loved one can file electronically at the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission’s website, or you can mail in a claim form/claim letter to the following address:
- Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission | 333 E. Franklin St., Richmond, VA 23219
What Can I Do For Lost Wages?
The lost wages compensation rate is two-thirds or 66.6% of your pre-injury average weekly wage. With that said, the minimum and maximum rates for compensation routinely change, so it would be best to consult with your attorney before assuming you’ll receive a specific amount.
Depending on the length of your employment, your total earnings are averaged using the total number of weeks worked over the course of the last year. Unfortunately, health care benefits that are paid for by your employer are not included in this calculation. If your physician has recommended you stop working due to your accident/injury, you might be entitled to lost wage benefits.
These payments begin a week after the disability period begins, and the first seven days are retroactively compensated to you once you’ve missed twenty-one days of work.
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If you sustained injuries at work, anywhere in Virginia, our attorneys at Marcari, Russotto, Spencer & Balaban may be able to help.
We thoroughly investigate the circumstances of your accident and aggressively pursue the maximum compensation possible for your injuries. Call us today at (855) 435-7247 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation.
You can also contact us by filling out the form below. Once you’ve filled it out, and we’ve received it, we will make sure to reach out to you as soon as we possibly can. We look forward to hearing from you!
