What are Common Chronic Pain Injuries and Can I Get Compensated for Pain and Suffering?
When people think of workers’ compensation, they often picture sudden injuries that may occur, such as falling from a ladder, but that’s only a small percentage of work injuries that occur. Some injuries may occur over time rather than having a single inciting incident.
Chronic pain injuries are incredibly common and affect people in a wide range of industries from labor-intensive careers to office work. Those who develop chronic pain from repeated activities at work are eligible for workers’ compensation.
In this blog, you’ll learn all about common chronic pain injuries, the type of compensation you can expect for such injuries, and whether you can receive compensation for pain and suffering.
What Chronic Pain Injuries are Common in Mississippi?
Many different chronic pain injuries can occur over time with repeated activities and movements at work. Labor-intensive jobs often come with a variety of chronic pains that develop over the course of months or even years. Some high-risk jobs that can result in a person developing chronic pain injuries include construction work, manufacturing, law enforcement, fire department, mail carrier, trucker, and other jobs.
Common chronic pain injuries associated with labor-intensive jobs include lower back pain, soft tissue injuries, rotator cuff injuries, knee pain, and joint pain. Chronic pains can put you out of work just like injuries associated with a single event because your work may exacerbate the issue.
In addition to labor-related jobs resulting in chronic pain injuries, office jobs can also result in a variety of ailments. Those who perform computer-related tasks at their jobs often suffer from tennis elbow, trigger finger, back pain, and tendonitis. Repeated movements and prolonged sitting can result in many different chronic pains as well.
If you develop chronic pain from your job, you need to apply for workers’ compensation.
Workers’ Compensation for Chronic Pain Injuries
If you suffer from one or multiple chronic pain injuries from work-related activities, you need to understand how you apply for workers’ compensation. Workers’ compensation is usually associated with a singular event, and in the case of an injury that develops over time, you determine your compensation start date as when the injury becomes too much to handle. You don’t write down when the chronic pain first occurred.
For example, if you develop wrist pain and you’re seeking workers’ compensation, you wouldn’t list the injury as occurring back when the wrist pain first developed—you would list the date in which the injury became too severe for you to handle, which is known as your acute onset date. Having a cumulative injury doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll receive workers’ compensation. The chronic pain needs to have progressed to a point in which you can’t handle the injury. There may not have been a sudden incident that caused the injury, but the chronic pain injury needs to be at the point in which you can’t handle the pain.
Does Workers’ Compensation Cover Pain and Suffering?
Unfortunately, workers’ compensation doesn’t cover pain and suffering after you experience a work injury or develop a chronic pain injury. You can seek compensation for pain and suffering in a personal injury lawsuit, but workers’ compensation only covers medical bills and lost wages. If you think you may have a personal injury case, discuss it with a Mississippi personal injury lawyer.
After your workers’ compensation is complete, you may be able to receive compensation for permanent restrictions and impairment. During the rehabilitation process, you may experience a time in which your doctor declares that you’re past the point in which you’ll recover further. If you have injuries and disabilities that you’re not expected to recover from, your doctor will assign you an impairment rating. You receive benefits based on that rating.
Although you will not be compensated for pain and suffering in your workers’ compensation, pain does become a factor when it debilitates your ability to work. You could earn more substantial disability benefits if your pain keeps you from working, but you’re not directly compensated for pain and suffering through workers’ compensation.
Contact a Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Attorney
If you or a loved one develop chronic pain injuries at work, you need to contact expert Mississippi workers’ compensation lawyers. Seasoned attorneys can help you through the process of receiving workers’ compensation benefits, and they can also help you evaluate if you also have a personal injury claim. Personal injury cases cover benefits outside of the scope of workers’ compensation such as pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and emotional damage. For expert legal guidance you can trust, contact Lunsford, Baskin, & Priebe, PLLC. We offer free, no-risk, case evaluations, so call our Jackson office at 601-488-3975 or contact us here.
Video Transcript
Common chronic pain is going to be back injuries, and wrist injuries and some joint injuries. With those, I very much understand that you can have pain that starts and it increases over years. Let’s use an example, your wrist pain. It’s important with Mississippi workers’ comp that the day that it eventually gets too much for you to handle anymore, like your wrist hurt too bad, we use that day as your acute onset date, is your date of injury. Just because you have a cumulative injury doesn’t mean that you’re not allowed to have workers’ comp. As far as pain and suffering goes, pain and suffering is not something that is contemplated Mississippi workers’ compensation. You do not get any monetary gain for having to go through the horrible process of surgeries and recovery, and all that like you would in personal injury. The only way that you are awarded money at the end of a workers’ compensation claim is by your impairment rating and your permanent restrictions.
