Workers Compensation Claim for Degenerative Issue - Szaferman Lakind

I got a really good question as it relates to what in essence would be considered a degenerative issue. So let me explain. When somebody gets hurt at work in workers compensation, you're are, if you've gotten injured at work, you're entitled to receive medical treatment. You're entitled to receive temporary disability if you get injured enough where you're out of work. And then you're also entitled to receive an award for your injury.

So those are the three basic things that you get. Interestingly enough, one of the issues that comes up has to do with someone who, let's say, has a preexisting condition. So let's say first we'll go category number one.

First, let's say that you have in fact been hurt before, but now you're involved in a work accident and that makes you worse. Well, under New Jersey workers comp, the workers comp insurance company has to provide the benefits to you.

It doesn't matter that you had a preexisting condition. So even though you may have hurt yourself years earlier, if the work accident aggravates accelerates or exacerbates that preexisting problem, then that's covered by workers compensation, okay? So you get your benefits now if you start receiving. So that's category number one. Category number two is I never hurt myself before, but I'm a little bit older, say like 53 years old.

So the issue becomes that when let's say you're a little bit older, the natural anatomical body gravity doing its thing is going to more than likely demonstrate that you have some form of arthritis or degenerative process or whatever the case might be. Okay? So my response to that in workers comp is so what?

The answer is that if you've never had any medical treatment before, never seen a doctor before, weren't having any trouble doing your job before, and then you're involved in a work accident, and let's say there's an MRI, and the MRI comes back and says, oh, look, you have some degenerative changes going on. Well, the answer is, so what?

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