Orange County Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Workplace Injury Lawyer

Orange County Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) Workplace Injury Attorney

Almost every employer in California is legally obligated to have workers’ compensation insurance, and this insurance serves an important role in protecting both injured workers and their employers when accidents happen in workplaces. While every job entails some level of risk, certain jobs are inherently more hazardous than others. It is vital for everyone working in Orange County to understand the risks they face every day at work and what to do if they experience a work-related injury.

Helping Injured Certified Nursing Assistants in Orange County, CA, With Workers’ Compensation Claims

The attorneys at Canlas Law Group can provide comprehensive legal counsel to injured workers throughout Orange County, CA. Certified nursing assistants (CNAs) are vital components of the healthcare system of the United States as a whole, and every CNA in Orange County faces many risks in the workplace each day. When they sustain injuries while working, our team has the experience necessary to guide them through the workers’ compensation claim filing process and determine whether they have grounds for additional legal recourse.

Unique Risks Facing CNAs in the Workplace

CNAs are crucial to patient care in almost every healthcare facility in Orange County. CNAs are responsible for monitoring their patients, ensuring daily care, maintaining patient medication schedules, and responding quickly to adverse changes in their patients’ conditions. Their job duties are inherently risky due to the fact that they are required to work with and near patients who may carry communicable diseases, presenting the risk of acquiring job-related illnesses. Their work is also physically demanding, and they can suffer various types of acute physical injuries. Caring for severely ill and injured patients also takes a psychological toll over time or after particularly traumatic experiences.

CNAs may suffer back injuries from lifting and moving patients, acquire illnesses from infectious diseases, sustain acute trauma from accidents in the workplace, or even sustain injuries from psychologically unstable patients in some situations. Repetitive stress injuries can also occur in various ways, and many CNAs develop psychiatric issues from traumatic experiences in their workplaces. If you or a loved one works as a CNA in Orange County and suffers any type of work-related injury or contract a work-related illness, an Orange County workers’ compensation attorney is the ideal resource to consult to help you recover as fully as possible.

Filing a Workers’ Compensation Claim in Orange County

Workers’ compensation serves as a financial lifeline for injured workers, providing them with economic benefits intended to offset the impact of a work-related illness or injury. As long as an illness was acquired through work or an injury was sustained while performing job duties, the victim is likely covered by their employer’s workers’ compensation insurance and can file a claim for benefits.

There is technically a one-year statute of limitations on workers’ compensation claims in California, but it is always advisable for an injured worker to file their claim as soon as possible. This prevents an insurance company from doubting a claim, citing that if the injury was as serious as suggested by the claimant, they would have filed their claim sooner. Seeking legal counsel as soon as possible after your injury or illness from work helps mitigate the risk of facing unjust scrutiny from an insurance company.

After you report your work-related illness or injury to your employer, they are required to provide the materials you need to file your claim to their insurance carrier. If your employer refuses to provide these materials, interferes with your claim filing process, or retaliates against you, it’s vital to consult an Orange County workers’ compensation attorney as soon as possible to determine your most viable options for dealing with these issues.

Benefits Available Through Workers’ Compensation

As part of the workers’ compensation claim filing process, you will likely be required to undergo a medical evaluation from a physician approved by your employer’s insurance carrier. Their job is to verify that your injury or illness is indeed work-related and evaluate the severity of your condition. They will assign you a disability rating, which is a numerical value indicating the severity of your injury or illness. This rating has a significant impact on your benefits determination from the insurance carrier.

Workers’ compensation claims typically yield two forms of benefits to injured workers. First, the insurance company pays for all the claimant’s medical expenses related to their injury or illness. The claimant can expect full coverage of all immediate medical care as well as the rehabilitative treatment they may need to reach maximum medical improvement. Second, the insurance carrier will pay disability benefits to address the claimant’s inability to work during recovery.

Disability benefits for Orange County workers’ compensation claims are paid in either partial or total designations. Partial disability benefits are reserved for claimants who are still able to work after their injuries but cannot earn the same level of income. They may only be able to handle light duty or lower-paying alternative job duties. They will need to report their earnings each week, and the insurance company will adjust each weekly benefits payment accordingly. If the claimant cannot work at all during their recovery, they will receive total disability benefits. Each weekly payment will be roughly two-thirds of their average weekly wage. For example, if the claimant usually earns about $1,200 per week, they will receive roughly $800 with each weekly benefits check. These payments can continue for up to 104 weeks or until the claimant can return to work at full earning capacity.

Pursuing Additional Recovery After a Workplace Injury in Orange County

Workers’ compensation insurance generally insulates employers from liability for their injured workers’ damages. This means an injured worker can only file a civil claim against an employer in response to a work-related injury if the employer does not have workers’ compensation insurance or if they caused the injury intentionally, such as by forcing the employee to perform a task outside of their usual job duties that had virtual certainty to result in harm to the employee.

It’s more likely for an injured worker to have grounds for legal action against a third party. If anyone outside of your work caused your work-related injury or illness, you could file your workers’ compensation claim and then pursue additional compensation with a third-party suit against whoever caused the harm. For example, if a CNA is treating an inebriated or mentally unstable patient who causes severe bodily harm, the victim can file their workers’ compensation claim because they were injured while working, but they may also have grounds for legal recourse against the patient who injured them.

A successful third-party personal injury claim can enable an injured CNA to recover compensation that workers’ compensation insurance cannot provide. For example, a successful workers’ compensation claim may yield full coverage of their medical expenses but only partial coverage of their lost income. A personal injury suit could enable them to recover the remainder of their lost income as well as compensation for their pain and suffering, and California law does not place a limit on pain and suffering compensation in most personal injury cases.

When a personal injury plaintiff pursues pain and suffering compensation from the defendant who injured them, they have the right to claim as much as they believe to be appropriate to reflect the severity of the harm they suffered. Your Orange County workers’ compensation attorney can assist you with determining a fair amount to claim from the defendant in your third-party suit. If you suffered an injury that you expect to fully recover from in the near future, they might aim for a per diem settlement that will reflect the time it will take for you to fully recover, but if you suffered any measure of permanent harm, they would likely multiply your total financial damages by a factor of one to five to reflect the severity of the harm you suffered.

Benefits of Having Legal Counsel You Can Trust in Your Work Injury Case

The workers’ compensation claim filing process may seem straightforward at first, but thousands of injured workers in Orange County and throughout the state experience all types of unexpected challenges with these claims each year. You could encounter challenges with your employer and/or their insurance carrier, and you could have grounds for additional legal recourse that you will not be able to properly address on your own.

Having trustworthy legal counsel advising you is a tremendous asset in any work injury case in Orange County. Instead of attempting to manage all your legal affairs and your medical needs simultaneously on your own, you can have a seasoned attorney represent you and manage all your legal issues so you can recover with peace of mind. Canlas Law Group has earned a strong reputation as a leading choice for legal counsel in work injury cases due to our commitment to client-focused representation.

Contact Our Team

Our team will take time to carefully review the details of your situation and understand the impact your injury has had on your life. We’ll guide you through the workers’ compensation claim filing process as swiftly as possible and determine whether you have grounds to pursue additional compensation from whoever caused your injury. The sooner you connect with an Orange County workers’ compensation attorney, the better your chances are of maximizing your recovery, so contact us today and schedule your free consultation with Canlas Law Group.