Warehouse Injury Lawyer in San Diego

What workers’ comp covers for a warehouse injury

Full-time, part-time, seasonal and peak-season workers are covered, and so are temps placed by a staffing agency. For a warehouse injury, benefits usually include:

• Medical treatment: doctor visits, X-rays and MRIs, physical therapy, medication, injections and surgery when it’s needed, generally through your employer’s medical provider network.
• Temporary disability (TD): checks while your doctor says you can’t work, usually two-thirds of your average weekly pay up to a state maximum. Regular overtime counts toward that average.
• Modified duty: large warehouses often offer light duty such as scanning or sorting. It has to fit your restrictions, including any limits on lifting, reaching or hours. If no job fits, TD should continue.
• Permanent disability (PD): payments if the injury leaves lasting limits, based on a rating of those limits.
• A job displacement voucher for retraining if you can’t go back to warehouse work and your employer has no other job for you.

Getting care while the claim is reviewed

Once you turn in the claim form, the employer generally has to authorize limited medical treatment while the insurer decides whether to accept the claim. The insurer usually has up to 90 days to decide. If it doesn’t deny the claim in that time, the claim is presumed accepted.

Common problems with warehouse injury claims

Warehouse claims are fought on different ground than a single dramatic accident. These are the disputes we see most:

• “It isn’t from work.” When pain builds up over months, the insurer may blame age, a hobby or a second job. Under California law, an injury caused by repeated work activity is a cumulative trauma injury and is covered. Its date of injury is generally when you first lost time or needed care for it and knew, or should have known, that work caused it.
• Quotas and pace. Employers sometimes say an injury came from rushing or skipping safe-lifting rules. Workers’ comp generally doesn’t depend on fault. Your quota records and work-speed data can show the repetitive pace behind the injury.
• Staffing agencies and temp workers. When an agency placed you, the agency and the warehouse may each say the other is responsible. Usually the agency’s insurer handles the claim, but report the injury to both.
• Onsite first aid. Notes from an onsite first-aid station may say you were fine and went back to work. That isn’t a medical evaluation, and it shouldn’t be the last word on your injury.
• Layoffs and the end of peak season. A claim filed after a layoff or termination notice faces extra hurdles unless the injury was reported or treated before then. Report before your last day.
• Discipline after reporting. Being written up for missing rate while on restrictions, or let go after reporting an injury, can be workers’ comp retaliation. California law protects you from being punished for filing a claim.

When to call a warehouse worker injury attorney

Plenty of warehouse claims go smoothly. Call us if any of these happen:

• Your workers’ comp claim was denied, or the insurer says there was no single accident so it isn’t work-related
• Your staffing agency and the warehouse each say the other is responsible
• You were sent back to work from onsite first aid without seeing a doctor, and the pain hasn’t gone away
• Light duty breaks your restrictions, or your temporary disability checks stopped
• You were written up, cut or let go after reporting the injury
• Therapy, an MRI or surgery your doctor asked for was denied
• Your seasonal job ended before the claim was sorted out, or you were offered a settlement

A workers’ comp lawyer’s fee is approved by a judge and paid out of your award, so there is nothing to pay up front.