.png)
Knee injuries are really serious for any worker, as they could keep them from doing their jobs. If they don't work, they can't get enough money for their food or any other expenses they have at home. Accidents can happen, though, and people need to be prepared for them.
The problem comes when the accident happens due to the negligence of another person. It's not the victim's fault that someone was reckless or didn't pay enough attention to what they were doing, so they deserve to get compensation for that. Likewise, business owners and managers can be liable for accidents that happen where they work.
Why? Because they have the legal responsibility to provide their employees with a safe environment to work. However, victims are often concerned about the money they receive from a workers' compensation settlement being enough to cover all their expenses.
Is it enough? This page has all the answers people suffering from a meniscus tear will need. Meniscus tears are one of the most common yet most problematic knee injuries workers can get while working. Larrimer & Larrimer is willing to help anyone in need of legal representation in workers' compensation cases, so the only thing victims need to do to get their help is to visit its website!
How Can Patients Know They Have a Knee Injury?
Although anyone who suffers from a meniscus tear at work can make a workers' compensation claim, the law has some restrictions on the time people have to do it; lawyers know that period of time as the statute of limitations. Victims of knee injuries in their workplace have one year from the day they got the injury to file for workers' compensation.
Here is where people start having issues because many victims don't know they have a meniscus tear until it's too late to file a claim against their employers. They often think their pain is not that big of a deal or that it's normal, so they avoid going to a doctor to check what causes it.
Anyone's first step after getting hit or having an accident is to make a doctor's appointment to get themselves checked by a professional. Victims with meniscus tears can experience one or more of these symptoms:
Pain in the knee joint
Swelling or stiffness in the knee
Locking of the knee joint
Feeling of instability
Weakness in the knee
Problems straightening the knee
Clicking sensation when moving the knee
Regardless of that, noticing any of these symptoms is not a clear sign that someone has a meniscus tear, and everyone should get a doctor's opinion before doing anything about it. Medical records are often good evidence to support a workers' compensation case.
Possible Causes of Meniscus Tears at Work
Before learning the causes of a meniscus tear, people should first know what the whole injury is about. The menisci are in a person's knees, and it works as a cushion that stabilizes the knee joint. Getting this injury can lead to severe pain and difficulty in moving the knee, and if untreated, lead to more severe medical conditions such as osteoarthritis.
This is one of the most common knee injuries people can get, and it can happen due to many things. As people grow older, their knee joints will age and have more chances of wearing and tearing naturally. Direct blows to the knees or a sudden twist can also cause this problem.
Other factors such as obesity and genetics also play a key role in suffering from this injury, as well as certain medical conditions such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. Depending on what the victim does for a living, they can face any of these issues.
Construction workers, for example, often get knee injuries because they need to carry heavy objects, even if that means doing it on uneven surfaces. The daily strain on their knees is what tears their menisci. Something similar happens to factory workers and people who work physically demanding jobs.
Healthcare employees, on the other hand, can develop a knee injury after standing for long periods or doing repetitive actions, such as bending and lifting patients all day. Something like that can happen to both doctors and nurses of any kind.
Office workers are a unique case among them all since, while healthcare employees develop knee injuries after standing all day, they can get them for not standing up for hours.
Programmers and office workers often sit in front of their computers all day without taking a break or stretching, and that lack of physical activity weakens their menisci and tears them.
Knee injuries are not uncommon at all for athletes playing sports that require them to suddenly stop and change their direction such as soccer, football, and basketball. Regardless of that, that doesn't happen due to the negligence of a boss or employer but because of everything they need to do while playing.
While all the situations listed before are probable causes of meniscus tears and other knee injuries, one of the most common reasons people ask for knee injury settlements is premises liability accidents. Premises liability cases, in a nutshell, consist of people suffering slips and falls or any other kind of accident because of the conditions of the place where the accident happened.
Does workers' compensation still apply in these cases? It can, but it depends on various factors. Legally speaking, the owners of a public place or private establishment made for clients to visit have to make sure the place is safe for everyone. Thus, they need to keep any foreseeable accident from happening. That's the reason people use caution signs to let people know if the floor is wet.
Understanding that, employers wouldn't need to pay for a workers' compensation claim if the accident happened due to a workplace problem they let the employees know beforehand. However, the sign or communication channel companies use to notify people of this danger needs to be visible and accessible to anyone who goes there.
How Much Can a Victim Get for a Workers Comp Meniscus Tear Settlement?
The amount of money victims get after a workers' compensation claim depends on many factors, so even if people have an idea of how much they can get, it's not more than an estimate. Generally, knee injury claims don't go below $10,000 or higher than $100,000. Nonetheless, that's not a rule and it can change depending on the specific conditions of the case.
Are Employers Always Liable for Workplace Knee Injuries?
Employers are not always the ones in charge of paying for workers' compensation settlements, or at least not the only ones. They are only responsible for a meniscus tear if the accident happened due to unsafe working conditions or direct negligence. However, this is not always the reason why someone suffers from a knee injury at work.
If the accident happened because of the negligence of a third party, such as a contractor or equipment manufacturer, victims can also include them in their workers' compensation claims. That means they would also need to pay for any medical expenses needed to recover from the knee injury apart from the money the other liable parties will also give the victim.
Naturally, workers' compensation settlements that include more than one liable party are often higher than claims where only employers pay for everything. Regardless of that, victims would need to prove the knee injury they are suffering from truly happened, at least at one point, due to the negligence of all those natural and juridical people.
Factors That Could Make a Workers Comp Meniscus Tear Settlement Go Up
As mentioned before, there are many factors that could make knee injuries worth more money than others, even if they get higher than the average. Here is a brief explanation of those factors:
Severity of the Injury
The severity of the knee injury the victim suffers is the most important thing to consider when determining how much money people can ask for in a workers' compensation claim. Why? Because the more severe the knee injury, the more money people need to recover from it.
Medical expenses are expensive, regardless of what people need to do to recover, but going through physical therapy is way more affordable than getting an arthroscopic surgery, for example. Pain and suffering, as well as emotional damage, are also things that add up to knee injury settlements.
Here is a list of the most common medical treatments people can try to recover from meniscus tears:
Rest and ice
Physical therapy
Chiropractic care
PRP therapy
Lost Wages
Apart from all the medical expenses people with a knee injury need to face, they also need to find a way to get money if their injury makes it impossible or difficult for them to work. It's difficult to financially recover from the money someone needs to pay for an arthroscopic surgery or any of the other medical treatments, but everything becomes way harder if the victim doesn't have any way of making money.
Legally speaking, people know the money victims lose for not working as lost wages, and they are in the average workers' comp settlement. Calculating lost wages is easier than many people think, as people only need to think about the money they would have made all the time they won't be able to work, according to what their doctor says.
Lost wages are directly related to the severity of the injury, as someone who needs to go through long-term physical therapy won't be able to work for longer than someone who only needs a week of rest. The time victims need to recover from knee injuries depends on the injury, but meniscus tears often take from six to eight weeks.
Employer Negligence
Employers know they will need to pay for the workers' comp knee injury their workers face if it happened due to their negligence, but how negligent they were directly changes the final settlement. Naturally, if many people are involved in the lawsuit, the judge may distribute the claim among all liable parties. Something similar happens in car accidents.
If they were completely liable for it and it was a situation they could and should have foreseen, they would pay way more than they would if it was a situation that, yet foreseeable, was more difficult to predict. Even if someone knows they are going to win their workers' compensation claim, they need to find all the evidence they can to prove their employer was clearly at fault for everything.
How to Get Financial Compensation for a Workplace Meniscus Tear Accident
Money from a workers comp knee injury settlement can truly help victims who weren't expecting to suffer from an accident anytime soon and didn't have a safety net to pay for the medical treatment. Nonetheless, all the legal processes needed to get that money can be stressful and overwhelming if they don't know what they need to do.
This list of steps is a good guide for people who don't know what they need to do after getting workplace knee injuries:
Go to a Doctor
The first step to follow after getting a workers comp knee injury is to get a doctor's appointment and a proper diagnosis. Doctors can give victims real evidence of the problem they are suffering from and what may have caused that problem. Besides that, they can give their patients an estimate of the money they will need to recover from the accident.
Waiting to go to the doctor or not getting a clear diagnosis before filing a lawsuit can delay the process or weaken the case. This will also let the victim know if they suffered a meniscus tear or any other workers comp knee injury.
Call a Workers' Compensation Lawyer
Hiring a good lawyer is essential if the victim wants any chance of getting enough money to get out of this issue. While all lawyers have a deep understanding of the local law and how it works, it's best for people to hire someone who specializes in personal injuries and workers' compensation cases.
The reason for that is they are experienced and know all the evidence and legal tricks they can use to make their case stronger. Lawyers who focus on workers' compensation have won and lost enough cases to know what works and what doesn't. Larrimer & Larrimer has some of the best workers comp lawyers in Columbus, Ohio, so it's a safe option for people living there.
Let the Boss Know About the Accident
Anyone who has a knee injury in their workplace needs to let their boss know of the injury right away, regardless of who is at fault for it. Even if the victim doesn't think their boss will offer workers comp benefits, it's worth a try. However, victims should never make a legal negotiation with them without their lawyer there.
Gather Evidence
Many things can work as evidence of a workplace knee injury, and people will need all the evidence they can get to win the case. As mentioned before, medical records are a great start, as they will let the judge and the workers' compensation insurance company know how severe the injury is and how much money victims need to get maximum medical improvement.
Pictures, videos, and witnesses of what happened are also excellent pieces of evidence, so people should keep a record of everything that happens just in case they need it for the case. However, workmans compensation law firm should always help their clients prove they suffered from a workplace knee injury and that it was due to the negligence of a third party.
File a Lawsuit
After getting enough evidence to support the case, lawyers should be able to file a workers' compensation lawsuit against the liable party for the accident. Handling all the paperwork needed for this process can be overwhelming, so it's best for the attorney to take care of everything from now on.
Victims can rest assured that their lawyer will tell them everything they need to know and build a strong case if they hire a good one. Nonetheless, they will tell them if they think the case is strong enough for a claim in the first case evaluation.
Try to Negotiate
Insurance companies and liable parties will try to negotiate with the victim to lower the settlement they are asking for. People often take these deals because, otherwise, they would need to go through a trial, which can take a lot of time. However, that means they would get less money than they thought.
Although this is a good option for people with a weak case, victims with a stronger one can straight up go to trial if they don't think the liable party is offering enough financial and medical benefits.
Go to Trial
The last step on any claim is to go to trial, and while it is a stressful process, it's rewarding once victims get all the money they need to recover from their work-related knee injury. People should always trust their lawyers will do everything they can to get the right settlement for them. They can also advise on a lumbar radiculopathy workers comp settlement.
Can I Get Compensation for Other Knee Injuries?
Meniscus tears are not the only work-related knee injury people can suffer from while working. Employees can get workers comp benefits for any kind of harm they suffer at their jobs.
Wrapping Up - Get Help from Larrimer & Larrimer Now!
Anyone looking for a workers' compensation lawyer to take their case in Columbus, Ohio, can stop looking now. Larrimer & Larrimer has a strong team of licensed, qualified, and skilled lawyers who will fight to get the money their clients need to the very end.
The lawyers from this law firm are highly experienced in workers' compensation cases, so they know everything they need to do to win their cases. Victims can call it today to schedule a case evaluation with one of its lawyers!