Amazon Workers with Broken Bones

Chicago Lawyers Helping Injured Warehouse Employees

As an Amazon warehouse worker, you may be under high stress and the pressure of working quickly. In a warehouse, you may suffer broken bones or other serious injuries in slip and fall accidents or while operating forklifts or other heavy equipment. When your broken bones are job-related, you may be able to obtain workers’ compensation benefits. Unlike traditional court cases, workers’ compensation claims do not require injured workers to prove fault. However, the intricate rules in the workers’ compensation system may be difficult for the injured to navigate. At Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca, our experienced Chicago workers’ compensation attorneys may be able to Amazon workers with broken bones file their claims.

Broken Bones

Broken bones may be partial or complete. The process by which bones heal depends on the nature and extent of the injuries and the stability of the fracture fixation. If you do not seek medical treatment for the fracture, the bone may heal in an unusual position and cause long-term pain, discomfort or disability. For a fracture, the doctor will attempt to reset the bone and immobilize it in a cast. Sometimes, broken bones can result in severe complications such as infection from the injury, damage to the skin, swelling of a nearby joint due to bleeding into the joint space, or formation of a blood clot in nearby vessels. Besides a traditional cast, other forms of treatment include a brace, open reduction, or bone remodeling.

Amazon Workers with Broken Bones

If you sustain a broken bone while working at an Amazon warehouse, you may be able to obtain workers’ compensation benefits. Unlike a personal injury lawsuit, these benefits only cover a portion of your lost wages and do not compensate for pain and suffering or other noneconomic losses. However, workers’ compensation is a no-fault system. You do not need to prove your employer’s negligence and, conversely, your employer may not reduce your benefits even if you were partially or fully to blame for your own injury.

Benefits

Amazon workers eligible for Illinois workers’ compensation benefits may receive reasonable medical care needed to relieve the impact the injury, temporary total or partial disability benefits, permanent partial or total disability benefits, and vocational rehabilitation. You should seek immediate medical care after an accident. Physicians can diagnose broken bones through medical imaging. When objective evidence, like an x-ray, is gathered soon after an accident, the association between work and the injury will be easier to establish. When broken bones are caused by an accident your coworkers saw, Amazon’s insurer will have a hard time denying the injuries are work-related. Still, you should provide written notice of your broken bones to Amazon, and take care to be honest and accurate in your account of the accident. If you fail to provide notice of the broken bones within 45 days, you could be barred from recovering benefits. If you have questions about filing an initial claim, meet with a workers’ compensation lawyer.

If the fracture prevents you from returning to a position that requires lifting and moving packages around, you may be eligible for disability benefits. Temporary disability benefits are paid at 66 2/3% of your average weekly wage up to a certain maximum that is updated every six months. You will only be eligible for temporary disability benefits once you miss three days of work, unless you miss more than 14 days of work. In that case, you can retroactively obtain benefits that partially replace your wages for those first three days of missed work. While most broken bones heal, some complicated cases, such as those involving comminuted fractures and shattering, may require surgery or result in permanent partial or total disability. In that case, you may be able to obtain permanent disability benefits, which also serve to partially replace your wages.

Meet with a Chicago Attorney

Amazon workers with broken bones should discuss their situation with the seasoned Chicago lawyers of Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca about work injuries. We also represent injured Amazon workers in Aurora, Quincy, Champaign, and Rockford, as well as Kane, Cook, Sangamon, and Winnebago Counties. Call us at 312-724-5846. Alternatively, you may complete our online form.