Can I Get Workers’ Compensation for a Repetitive Stress Injury?

Yes. In California you can receive workers’ compensation benefits for an injury that built up gradually from repetitive work, not only for an injury that happened at one identifiable moment. This article covers cumulative trauma claims: what they are, which body parts and conditions they typically involve, how they get proven, and when it makes sense to call an attorney. It does not cover claims from a single workplace accident, which follow a somewhat different path.

WHAT IS A CUMULATIVE TRAUMA INJURY?

Most injured workers know that if they are hurt at a specific time and place on the job, they are entitled to benefits. That is called a specific injury. The second major type of claim gets overlooked all the time.

A cumulative trauma injury, also called a repetitive stress or repetitive strain injury, is harm that develops from doing the same physical work over and over across days, weeks, months, and often years. A specific injury has a date. A cumulative trauma injury has a period of exposure instead, a stretch of employment during which the work slowly did the damage. Both are compensable under California law.

WHICH PARTS OF THE BODY WEAR OUT FROM REPETITIVE WORK?

Just like a car, the body wears out with mileage. The joints often do not get the chance to recover fully before you start work the following day, and that cycle repeats shift after shift.

Before you know it, your knees, your lower back, your wrists and hands, or your neck are stiff and sore for no apparent reason, other than the mileage you have put on those joints. Eventually the pain simply does not go away. That is the point to investigate it with a doctor at the employer’s expense rather than assume you are just getting older.

CAN FUMES, STRESS, AND BLOOD PRESSURE COUNT TOO?

Cumulative trauma is not limited to joints. Inhaling dangerous or toxic fumes at work can injure the lungs over the long term, and that exposure builds up the same way repetitive motion does. Repetitive, high-stress work can also raise blood pressure permanently or aggravate conditions such as diabetes. California workers’ compensation covers work that makes an existing condition permanently worse, not only work that creates a new condition from nothing.

IS IT TOO LATE IF YOU HAVE BEEN HURTING FOR YEARS?

Not necessarily. With a gradual injury, the deadline clock generally does not start on the first day you felt sore. It starts when you knew, or reasonably should have known, that the condition was related to your work, which is usually the point where a doctor tells you the job is a factor.

You also do not have to quit or be off work to file. California law protects workers from being retaliated against for filing a claim, and many of my clients file while they are still doing the same job.

HOW DO YOU PROVE A REPETITIVE STRESS CLAIM?

Report it to your employer as soon as you connect the symptoms to your job. California generally gives you around 30 days, and sooner is always better, because with a gradual injury the carrier’s first argument is usually that the problem came from somewhere else. Your employer then has to give you the employee’s claim form.

From there the medical evidence carries the case. Your treating physician and, where there is a dispute, a Qualified Medical Evaluator (QME), a state-certified doctor who examines you and writes a formal report, will review your records and your job duties to decide whether the work caused or contributed to the condition. California law gives the insurance carrier roughly 90 days to investigate and either accept or deny, and requires that early treatment move forward during that window.

DO YOU NEED AN ATTORNEY FOR A CUMULATIVE TRAUMA CLAIM?

Not every case needs one. If your employer accepts the claim quickly, sends you to a doctor, and pays benefits while you treat, you may be fine handling it yourself.

These claims do get contested more often than accident claims, because there is no single event to point to and the carrier will look hard at your age, your hobbies, and your prior medical history. In my practice out of Santa Ana, that is where the right medical evaluation makes the difference between a denied file and a documented one.

I have spent over 30 years handling California workers’ compensation cases, and cumulative trauma is among the most commonly missed claims in the system. If your body is telling you that years of repetitive work have caught up with you, that by itself is usually a sign it is worth a phone call. This article is general information about California workers’ compensation and is not legal advice for any individual case.

Thomas F. Martin, PLC offers a free 30-minute case evaluation. Call (714) 547-5025.