In today’s workplaces, virtually all professional, office and administrative workers work on personal computer terminals, laptops or similar technology, usually at a traditional desk. While we think of risky worksites as those involving heavy machinery, work at heights, exposure to chemicals, physical labor or similarly dangerous features, full-time sedentary work has its own inherent health risks.
Health risks of sedentary work
Maryland case on exceptions to the going-and-coming rule
Normally, Workers’ Compensation is not available in Maryland when an employee is injured during his or her regular commute to work. This concept is called the going-and-coming rule, based on the idea that a commute is not an action in the course of employment. Rather, a commute is considered a common, ordinary risk all workers who commute take. However, there are exceptions.
Possible suicide of Baltimore police could prevent death benefits
Last month, a veteran 43-year-old Baltimore police detective died after having been shot with his own official police weapon while investigating a triple homicide in the Harlem Park neighborhood. With 18 years of service behind him, the officer is survived by his wife and five children, according to The Baltimore Sun.
Maryland Workers’ Compensation and holiday parties away from work
We are entering the season of work-sponsored holiday parties. When an employer-sponsored party is held off of work premises such as at a hotel, casino or restaurant and an employee is injured at the party or during the trip to or from the event, whether the injury is covered under Maryland Workers’ Compensation law can be a complicated question.
Injury arising out of and in the course of Maryland employment
Maryland Workers’ Compensation law says that if a worker’s injury arose out of and in the course of employment, the employee will qualify for Workers’ Compensation benefits for that work-related harm. While many cases obviously arise out of and in the course of employment, still others happen during circumstances that are not as clear.
Maryland Workers’ Compensation: Statutory employers
We represent injured Maryland construction workers in their Workers’ Compensation claims and in third-party lawsuits, where appropriate. Last month, the Court of Special Appeals of Maryland decided an unpublished case that sheds light on issues that can arise in construction injury claims involving subcontractor employees.
Is PTSD compensable under Maryland Workers’ Compensation law?
The short answer to this question is yes, but it depends. We represent clients with a wide variety of mental and physical work-related impairments, including post-traumatic stress disorder, often referred to as PTSD. The disease itself as well as how Maryland Workers’ Compensation law treats it are extremely complex. It is important after work-related trauma not only to get mental health treatment, but also to consult a Workers’ Compensation lawyer with specific PTSD experience.
Maryland Workers’ Compensation: vocational rehabilitation
A Maryland employee who sustains a work-related injury or develops an occupational disease is entitled to Workers’ Compensation. Most people think of Workers’ Compensation as consisting of payments that are a percent of the person’s average wages, as well as medical treatment.
Maryland high court ruling on subsequent intervening events
Here at Cohen, Snyder, Eisenberg & Katzenberg, P.A., we represent people in Workers’ Compensation claims of all types and at all stages of the application and appeals process. We do not hesitate to take cases involving complex legal issues.
Maryland Workers' Compensation death benefits: Part 2
Today we continue our discussion of Workers' Compensation benefits available to surviving dependents of Maryland workers who suffered work-related deaths. In Part 1, we discussed dependency.