Whether they occur through repetitive stress or a workplace accident, shoulder injuries can have a devastating impact on your health, your career, and your finances. Florida workers who suffered injuries while on the job are entitled to workers’ compensation benefits and, in some cases, additional damages through a personal injury claim.
For more information about seeking compensation, call Rosenberg & Rosenberg today. We provide free consultations to injured workers and would be glad to put a team of Florida workers’ compensation lawyers, including one of our founding partners, on your case so you can focus on your recovery.
Your risk of developing a shoulder injury while on the job depends on what industry you are in and what protections your employer provides you with. Our personal injury lawyers can help you seek workers’ compensation for shoulder injuries in Florida if you:
As long as you can prove that your injury happened while you were performing your regular, expected job duties, you can file a workers’ comp claim. Injuries like the following could be grounds for such a claim:
Even if you have a preexisting condition, you can still qualify for workers’ compensation. For instance, a worker with manageable bursitis symptoms can file a claim for an intense flare-up that only occurred because of the conditions at their job.
Different shoulder injuries present with different symptoms. As an example, the Cleveland Clinic states that a torn rotator cuff may result in pain, weakness, and cracking sounds—but the extent of these symptoms may also depend on how severe the injury is and your own ability to tolerate pain.
As soon as you begin experiencing any unusual shoulder symptoms, talk to your employer. Not only can getting prompt treatment prevent symptoms from worsening, it can also strengthen your claim by putting your symptoms on the record as early as possible.
Your first step should always be to report the injury to your employer. This is a legal requirement, but it also allows you to get medical care right away and creates a clear paper trail establishing a connection between your job and your injury.
Once you report the injury, your employer is supposed to tell their workers’ compensation insurance company about what happened. If they do not, you can make the report yourself or have our workers’ compensation attorneys do it for you.
Depending on how clear the specifics of your case are and the insurer’s own willingness to cooperate, you may receive:
A denial is frustrating, but it does not mean you will never get any benefits. Our legal team can guide you through the workers’ compensation appeals process, which may involve:
Call now to find out how Rosenberg & Rosenberg can make the workers’ compensation process easier for you to deal with.
You are entitled to enough workers’ compensation benefits to cover:
There is no set or average amount that all workers with a shoulder injury will get. Your benefits depend entirely on your circumstances. This is why it is so important to document your accident and injury as thoroughly as possible.
You need to prove that your job duties caused your injury, and that your injury caused the losses for which you are now seeking benefits. Our workers’ compensation law firm can use various forms of evidence to build these connections, including:
The more proof you can bring to bear on your claim, the harder it may be for the insurance company to reject it.
Under state law, most employers are obligated to provide workers’ compensation insurance to their workers. However, there are a few exceptions to this requirement, and there are some employers who choose not to purchase insurance even if the law says they must.
Fortunately, injured workers have another way to get the money they need to help them cope with a workplace accident.
Our legal team can file a personal injury claim or lawsuit against an uninsured employer or a third party (e.g., a contractor or property owner) whose negligence helped cause your shoulder injury. This may involve negotiating a pretrial settlement or taking your case to trial.
One of the benefits of a personal injury claim is that it allows you to seek money for a wider range of damages than a workers’ compensation claim does. You could potentially recover:
If you decide to sue a third party for their negligence, then yes, you can do that while filing a workers’ comp claim at the same time.
However, you are not allowed to sue your employer if you have the option of filing a workers’ compensation claim. If your employer bought workers’ comp insurance, then they are immune from any other legal action, and filing a claim for benefits is your only chance of recovering compensation from them.
Seeking workers’ compensation for shoulder injuries in Florida is your right, but that does not mean the insurance company will make it easy. Call Rosenberg & Rosenberg for a free case review now to find out how our workers’ compensation attorneys can help you build your case and fight for the money you are depending on. Our firm has spent over 50 years advocating for people just like you.