Most Maryland workers’ compensation cases are for accidental personal injury.  This covers work injuries like slip-and-falls, auto accidents, and almost anything else that can cause injury at the workplace.

The other type of workers’ comp cases are for occupational disease.  An occupational disease includes things like asbestosis, repetitive motion injuries (carpal tunnel syndrome, for example), deafness, mental stress, leukemia or hypertension.  These are injuries or diseases that typically happen over a long period of time, unlike an accident which is usually instantaneous.

Proving Occupational Disease Workers’ Compensation Claims

Injured workers must prove the following in an occupational disease claim:

  1. Disablement:  the worker must be partially or totally incapacitated because of an occupational disease.  In some cases, time lost from work can be sufficient.  The type of work is usually based on the most recent type of work the employee was performing at the most recent “exposure” to the mechanism of injury.
  2. Objective test: the worker must prove that the disease is consistent with causes found in the work environment, and that it is a hazard inherent in the general work.
  3. Subjective test:  the worker must prove that it is reasonably likely that he was injured because of the employment.

Benefits Recoverable in an Occupational Disease Claim

If the injured worker proves that he was injured by an occupational disease, he is entitled to the same benefits as those who suffered accidental injury, including a portion of lost wages, medical treatment, prescription expenses, and an award for permanent injury.

Contact Us

If you have asbestosis, repetitive motion injury, lung disease, cancer or any other type of illness that you believe was caused by your employment, contact our workers’ compensation attorneys at 1-800-776-4529, or send us some online information about your case.  We can explain the process for filing a workers’ compensation claim, and will help you every step of the way.

More Maryland Workers’ Compensation Information