This article discusses back injuries and North Carolina workers’ compensation. Unfortunately for workers, back injuries are the third most common area of the body injured on the job. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers suffered 148,780 back injuries in 2017. This equates to 407 workers in the United States suffering back injuries every day.
Given the frequency with which back injuries occur on the job, North Carolina workers' compensation statutes include several ways to find a compensable back injury:
- “Accidental injury” is the default condition for all North Carolina workers’ compensation claims and must occur in the course and scope of your employment. To quote North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Law: “Injury and personal injury” means only accidental injuries arising out of or in the course of employment and does not include disease of any kind unless the injury is natural and unavoidable from the accident. “
- A “specific traumatic event” that resulted in a back injury. Quoting from North Carolina Workers' Compensation Law: “However, with respect to back injuries, if the back injury occurs in the course of employment and is the direct result of a specific traumatic event attributable to the assigned job, then 'accidental injury' shall be construed to include any disabling physical injury to the back resulting from or causally related to such event.”
But what is specific traumatic event? The statute does not actually tell us what this means; however, in the years since this change to the statute was made in 1983, courts have defined what this means through examples.
One example occurred in Richards v. Town of Valdeza court ruled that a firefighter who was working in full gear for 15 hours was entitled to compensation for back injuries caused by pain in his back later that day. A specific traumatic injury can be an event or series of events that occurs over an identifiable period of time that results in a back injury, not just an accident.
A back injury may even be considered recoverable as a specific traumatic event, even if the symptoms occur in different parts of the body, as long as a doctor can prove that the symptoms were caused by the back injury. exist Ruffin v. Compass Group USAAt the time of the incident, the injured worker was carrying a heavy box and felt pain in his left shoulder. Doctors discovered that the shoulder symptoms were coming from a herniated disc in her back.
You may even suffer a back injury, but you won't experience immediate pain, which is compensable. exist Beam v. Floyd Creek Baptist ChurchA church secretary was injured while carrying heavy items up stairs but did not feel the pain until the next morning. The court said this was compensable because the pain was caused by a specific trauma. You only need to prove that the injury occurred within an identifiable time frame after the pain was felt.
All in all, back injuries and North Carolina workers’ compensation can be intimidating, but with the help of a North Carolina workers’ compensation attorney, you can better understand whether you have a workers’ compensation case and how to prepare for a claim.
The Bishop Law Firm represents clients injured on the job in Raleigh, Cary, Durham, North Carolina, and the surrounding areas. We don't get paid unless we win, and we offer free case evaluations. Call us today, (919) 615-3095.
