Courts Debate Over When Workers Comp Covers Carpal Tunnel

October 30, 2013- Workers’ comp laws vary by state, but often those laws require an employee to file for benefits within a certain period of time after being injured. But with cumulative trauma injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome, pinpointing the date of injury is trickier.

A recent case in Mississippi highlights the questions that can arise with cumulative trauma injuries. Mississippi’s workers’ comp law says if there’s no application for benefits filed within two years of injury, the right to compensation is barred. However, case law in Mississippi also recognizes carpal tunnel syndrome as an injury that “is not immediately recognizable,” and the claim period for the statue of limitations runs from the time the injury becomes “reasonably apparent.”

In one case, a woman, Johnnie Brown, who worked in a job packing nails for Duo-Fast plant in Cleveland, Miss., was diagnosed with carpal tunnel in both hands. She argued the clock started running in May 2004, when she was diagnosed following a nerve-conduction study.

An administrative law judge found the clock started to run in November 2001, when Brown’s primary-care physician diagnosed her with carpal tunnel. Brown appealed that decision. And, in a different ruling, the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission found the statute of limitations began to run in January 2003, when a specialist found Brown’s carpal tunnel was work-related. (Brown’s diagnosis by her primary care physician didn’t include the fact that it was work-related.)

Brown appealed again, but the court didn’t see it her way. It said it wasn’t necessary for carpal tunnel to be diagnosed through the nerve test. The diagnosis by the doctor including that it was work-related was enough for the clock to start ticking. So Brown wasn’t awarded workers’ comp benefits because it was still longer than two years.

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