The most common work injuries are neck and back injuries. Others are repetitive strain injuries, head injuries, lifting injuries, brain injuries, spinal damage, workers suffer from: fall related injuries, broken bones and fractures, burns as well as injuries caused by exposure to chemicals or toxic substances. Sometimes injuries are sudden other times they occur gradually over time as a result of their day to day work activities. These gradual traumas also called “Gillette” injuries can also be covered by Minnesota’s workers’ compensation laws.
Most employers in Minnesota are required to have Workers’ Compensation insurance in place to protect their employees. However, even if your employer doesn't have Workers’ Compensation insurance, benefits may still be available to you through the Minnesota Special Compensation Fund.  These benefits include wage loss benefits, permanent partial disability benefits, vocational rehabilitation, retraining benefits, and death and dependency benefits. It is very important to have an experienced attorney on your side; someone who understands how all of these benefits work together—an attorney who will maximize what you get.

 

How To Determine if You are Experiencing a Workplace Injury!

First, if you have suffered an injury at work and have not reported it to your employer, you should do so immediately! There are strict deadlines for actually reporting an injury once you are aware the injury is related to your work activities. Failure to report the injury might be an obstacle from any possible recovery.
Notice of a work- related injury should be given to a supervisor, human resources director, or someone else in a position of authority with the employer. This person should give you a DWC-1 to fill out. The DWC-1 outlines the nature of your work injury and how it relates to your work. You or your employer should then recommend you to a Redding Worker's Compensation doctor to document the injury and seek treatment.

However, some injuries are difficult to determine if they are work related. The legal test is whether the injury arose out of employment through the course of the employment.
Job Duties Cause an Injury or Disabling Condition Through Repetitive Use During Your Employment.

Not all work comp injuries are the result of one specific incident. If you fall down a flight of stairs and break your leg while at work, anyone could determine the specific time and date the work injury occurred. This is considered a "specific injury." It is fairly easy to determine if this injury is work-related.

However, some injuries are more difficult to determine if they were directly caused by your employment. For example, what about work activities which over a period of time result in a painful or disabling medical condition? An example of this kind of injury would  be someone who does manual labor and spends all day, everyday, bent over shoveling or lifting. Due to the lifting and shoveling, this person develops lumbar back pain which requires medical treatment. If the work activities of lifting and shoveling contributed to his/ her back injury, this would be a repetitive injury work comp claim.  Other examples would include: if you use your hands repetitively at work and you develop hand/wrist pain; or if you do a lot of walking and climbing and develop knee pain; or if you are exposed to toxins and/or chemicals over a period of time and develop respiratory problems; or if you are exposed to loud noises at work and gradually develop hearing problems. These types of injuries are labeled repetitive, or "cumulative trauma" injuries.

Cumulative trauma injuries happen gradually at work, over a period of time or during a course of repetitive action. These injuries are generally considered to arise out of your employment through the course of doing your work activities. Therefore, they would be a work-related injury and fall under work comp.

One of the trickiest parts of cumulative injuries is determining the date injury occurred. The date of injury for a repetitive use injury, can be the first date you see a physician, the first day you become disabled or limited from the injury, or the last day you work, among other possible dates.

If you suspect that you have such a claim from your work activities, you should give notice to your employer immediately, explaining you have a medical condition which you believe is related to your work activities. Again, follow-up with your physician right away and describe in detail what your job duties were and how they seemed to cause or increase your symptoms.Our Recommendation:If you are unsure whether you have been injured on the job, or if you have a medical condition or disability which you believe was caused or aggravated by your work activities, immediately file a report of injury with your employer and contact our office for a FREE consultation. We will advise you of the rights and benefits available to you.

Eight Car Makers Join in the Recall of Exploding Airbags



When designed correctly, airbags will save lives. According to the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration, airbags have saved approximately 35,000 lives since 1987. However, when airbags are defectively designed, they create a high risk of severe injury and death. As of 2009, defective airbags were responsible for 296 deaths, 59 life threatening injuries, and countless severe injuries.

Signs that you have  defective airbags are when one of the following occurs:

• The airbag inflates too quickly and aggressively, violently hitting the occupant in the face; or

• The airbag ruptures before inflation, spewing pieces of metal into the occupant’s body.
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NHTSA has opened an investigation into the issue and says that it knows of six incidents of ruptured bags and three injuries in high-humidity Florida and Puerto Rico. As of mid-July, eight car manufacturers including Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, and Subaru had joined in the recall of these defective Takata airbags. In the latest actions:

• Honda recalled 1.02 million vehicles in North America and 2.03 million worldwide. They were built from 2000 through 2005 and include some models of Civic, CR-V, Odyssey and Element. With this expansion, air bag recalls have affected nearly 4 million of the company’s older vehicles in North America.

• Nissan recalled 755,000 vehicles worldwide built from 2001 through 2003, with about a quarter-million Pathfinder, Cube and Infiniti FX35 models in North America.

• Mazda recalled nearly 160,000 vehicles made from 2002 through 2004, with about 15,000 in North America, including RX-8 and early Mazda6 sedans.

• Regional recalls in the U.S. by Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Toyota, BMW, Ford and Chrysler of certain vehicles in humid climates. NHTSA estimates that 1.5 million vehicles could be affected — the totals and lists of vehicles still were being compiled.

• Subaru is recalling nearly 8,600 Subaru Legacy cars, Outback wagons, Baja crossovers, and Impreza cars.

Since 2008, more than 10 million cars containing the defective Takata airbags have been recalled.