If you’ve been injured at work and your ability to make a living has been impacted, you can seek workers’ compensation benefits. They help you stay financially sound while recovering from your injuries. Depending on the severity, your doctor may instruct you to take a leave of absence from work or you may be able to return on a light-duty basis. Regardless of your physical limitations, benefits should be available to you. In some instances, however, your employer could try to reduce the compensation you’re receiving.

Do you spend any of your workday on a ladder, a scaffold or on some other surface that puts you several feet off the ground? If so, you more than likely already know that a fall is a significant hazard for you. A fall can cause any number of serious injuries that can change the course of your life, and when that fall happens at work, you may be entitled to Maryland workers’ compensation benefits.

Any injury to your pride after a fall is nowhere near as important as any physical injuries you may have suffered. Broken bones, neck and back injuries and hitting your head could all have substantial effects on your life. Even if doctors say you merely strained or sprained something in the fall, you could still find yourself in a lot of pain, out of work for a while and wondering how you will pay your bills.

When workplace injuries are mentioned, many people think of construction workers falling off scaffolds, industrial workers suffering electric shocks or warehouse workers involved in forklift accidents. Office workers and employees in the technology industry are not typically included in discussions about occupational hazards. However, the Maryland workers’ compensation program reports many claims filed by computer operators for repetitive stress injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome.

Many of the on-the-job accidents that happen here in Maryland cause injuries from which an employee will more than likely recover. However, you may be one of the individuals who suffers such a severe injury that a full recovery is not possible. In that case, you may be wondering what type of workers’ compensation benefits you can receive to help with your financial situation since you may never be able to return to work, or at the very least, you may not be able to return to the work you did prior to the accident.

INJURED DURING A WORK BREAK? WHAT IF YOU WORK REMOTELY? 

Workers’ comp covers you for any work-related accident or injury. But what about injuries while getting coffee or snacks? What about your lunch hour? If you weren’t technically working, can you claim a work injury?

Maryland courts have recognized the “personal comfort doctrine” in workers’ compensation. When you are at work, there is a benefit — to you and the employer — in taking mental breaks, using the restroom and getting refreshments. But there are gray areas and untested scenarios relating to the allowance for personal comfort. Your employer may challenge a work injury claim that stems from a work break.

Employers in Maryland face potentially severe penalties if they run afoul of workplace safety regulations, and checking records for accuracy is often among the first steps taken by OSHA inspectors. Employers hoping to avoid fines or other sanctions must keep track of workplace injuries and illnesses if they are considered recordable under OSHA regulations, but employers are sometimes unclear about the line of demarcation.

Sometimes, OSHA guidelines make it very clear that a workplace injury or illness is recordable. Employers must keep records when workers are killed, forced to take time off work or injured badly enough to be reassigned. Injuries must also be recorded when workers lose consciousness for any period of time or require medical treatment beyond what would be considered first aid. Employers must also keep records when a physician or other medical professional diagnoses a serious injury or condition even if none of these conditions apply.

Maximum medical improvement is an important concept in workers’ compensation cases. Maximum medical improvement (MMI) occurs when an injured employee has reached the maximum benefit that can be obtained from medical care. At that point, a doctor can evaluate any lingering impairment to determine the extent of the permanent injury to the employee’s body.

An injured worker’s recent attempt to change longstanding workers’ compensation laws to allow her to continue to receive temporary total disability benefits after achieving MMI has been rejected by Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals.

One of the scourges of the modern-day world is mold and the impact of exposure upon our health. In a recent court case, Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals decided that a doctor’s opinion that exposure to mold led to a raft of problems for workers in a water-damaged building was not scientifically valid under the standard presently used in the Maryland court system.

The lawsuit stemmed from complaints by several employees of the Baltimore Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church (BWCUMC) of an odor emanating from the walls. A maintenance crew investigated and discovered mold. As a result, several workers filed claims against BWCUMC and its insurer, Montgomery Mutual Insurance Company with the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission. The workers said they suffered from “sick building syndrome” as a result of the exposure. While some of the workers’ claims were disallowed, several were awarded partial compensation.

Pro footballers and workers’ compensation claims were on the mind of the Court of Appeals in August. The state’s top court released two decisions, two days apart, favoring claims made by two former Washington Redskins players.

In Pro-Football, Inc., t/a the Washington Redskins, et al. v. Thomas J. Tupa, Jr., the state’s top court ruled that former Washington Redskins punter Tom Tupa can collect workers’ compensation benefits in Maryland for a back injury that occurred at FedEx Field during warm-ups before a pre-season game in August 2005.

There were two questions before the court: (1) whether the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Commission should have exercised jurisdiction over the claim when the employment agreement contained a clause providing, among other things, that claims for workers’ compensation benefits should be governed by Virginia law and that the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission should have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve such claims and (2) whether injuries occurring while playing and practicing professional football are “accidental injuries” and, as a result, compensable under the Maryland Workers’ Compensation Act.