Rotator Cuff Injuries

Job Injury Lawyers Serving the Chicago Area

Your rotator cuff is a set of tendons and muscles around the shoulder joint. It keeps the top of the bone within the shoulder socket. If you injure your rotator cuff, the result can be dull pain. Often, rotator cuff injuries are caused by repetitive overhead motions, and they are more likely to occur as you get older. They may arise on the job in carpenters, athletes, construction workers, or painters. If you suffer on-the-job rotator cuff injuries, you may be able to recover workers’ compensation benefits. At  Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca, our Chicago rotator cuff injury lawyers may be able to provide legal representation, and we can also represent you in any appropriate third-party personal injury claim.

Pursuing Benefits for Rotator Cuff Injuries

Rotator cuff injuries can be very painful and reduce a worker’s ability to do a job. Rotator cuff tears can result from a single injury, but disease can also affect the rotator cuff. When there are serious rotator cuff tears, it may be necessary to undergo surgery, replace the joint, or have tendons transferred. The pain may disturb a worker’s sleep, make it difficult to put on clothes or comb hair, and cause arm weakness.

You should see a doctor right away if you suffer rotator cuff injuries on the job. You should also report the injuries to your employer and let it know that you believe that these injuries are work-related. You have 45 days to let your employer know about these injuries, but our Chicago rotator cuff injury attorneys believe that it is wise to let the employer know as soon as possible. It can raise red flags for an insurer if you delay in reporting work-related injuries to an employer, and the insurer may look for other reasons outside your job that you suffered these injuries. You generally have three years within which to file a claim with the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission.

A wide range of workers’ compensation benefits may be available to you for job-related rotator cuff injuries. Workers’ compensation should cover your medical care to the extent that this care is reasonably necessary to relieve or fix the impact of the injuries. It should also provide disability benefits. If you are totally but only temporarily unable to work due to rotator cuff injuries, you may be eligible for temporary total disability benefits. If you are only partially disabled by rotator cuff injuries, you can recover partial disability benefits. Some people are fully unable to work on a permanent basis due to rotator cuff injuries, and they may be eligible for permanent total disability benefits. A rotator cuff injury lawyer can advise Chicago workers on the types of benefits that may be available to them.

What if you have pre-existing rotator cuff injuries? Insurers sometimes deny claims on the basis of a pre-existing condition. They may look for a doctor to review your medical records and say that your problems may be a result of other non-work activities. There are some doctors who are known to be sympathetic to insurers and are often consulted by insurers for that reason.

You will not necessarily lose the ability to get workers’ compensation benefits because of a pre-existing condition. An employer takes you as it finds you. An aggravation of a pre-existing condition is a compensable injury. However, you will need to show that what happened on the job made your condition worse or aggravated a condition that had been dormant for some time. You should not delay in reporting an accident that aggravates the condition of your rotator cuff; it can help for the purposes of recovering benefits to be able to trace the accident to a particular time and cause that is job-related.

Consult a Rotator Cuff Injury Attorney in Chicago

If you suffered rotator cuff injuries on the job, you should consult an experienced workers’ compensation attorney. At  Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca , we represent clients in Chicago, Aurora, Springfield, Champaign, Rockford, and Quincy, as well as other areas of Cook, Kane, Sangamon, Champaign, Winnebago, and Adams Counties. Call us at 312-724-5846 for a free consultation, or contact us online.