Many jobs carry with them inherent risks of injury no matter who performs them. A construction worker who must be high up on scaffolding can fall no matter what health the person is in. If you are a health care worker there are a number of work related injuries that you could experience regardless of your health condition.
There are however some jobs where an injury may be more prone to occur depending on the workers’ health. Take for instance a job where you are required to lift heavy packages. If you are someone who is already prone to back related issues can you file a Connecticut workers’ compensation claim if you injure your back at work?
The simple answer is yes you can still file a claim for your injured back even if it had already been previously injured. If you had received a clean bill of health and returned to the workplace only to reinjure your back again while at work you can file a claim for an injury that occured while on the job.
When you are in the course of your duties at work and you injure yourself you are eligible to file a claim. Where this may fall outside of the scope of a workers compensation claim is if you had injured yourself on your own and then came to work and claimed it was while you were doing your job.
Take again the example of the strained back. If you were outside of work on the golf course over the weekend and tweaked your back during your swing this would be considered an injury that you experienced when you were not on the clock, it would not be eligible for a claim. If you then returned to work with a bad back on Monday morning and claimed the injury occured while on the job this could be considered fraud.
When trying to determine whether an injury could be claimed as a Connecticut workers’ compensation claim you should always ask the question, did this injury occur while I was performing duties for work. That doesn’t mean you have to be physically at your workplace for the injury to be considered eligible. If you are out running errands for your job and you injure yourself, you can still claim this injury even though you weren’t physically at your place of work.
Navigating the claim process can be challenging especially if you have questions about whether your injury would be covered or not. Working with a board certified attorney may help you get the compensation you deserve for your injury. Contact our office and one of our experienced attorneys will speak with you.
