If you or a loved one has been exposed to novel coronavirus (COVID-19) while on the job, we can help you figure out what benefits you may qualify for. A successful workers’ compensation claim will pay:
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100% of your medical bills
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Provide wage loss for time lost from work
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Provide permanent disability benefits if the recovery is not full
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Provide lifetime medical care if necessary
Should a loved one pass away from COVID-19, then death benefits can be pursued.
Our attorneys have been learning about people experiencing lingering symptoms of the illness for 1, 2 or even 3 months. This group with longer-term symptoms of the virus is being referred to as coronavirus “long-haulers” or “long-termers.” We believe they may have compelling cases well worth pursuing.
The Carlo Law Group is dedicated to protecting the rights of injured workers and will fight for the benefits you deserve. See how an experienced California workers’ compensation attorney can help you. Call us today at (408) 292-2003 for a free consultation.
According to the CDC, COVID-19 symptoms may manifest anywhere between 2 to 14 days after you’ve been exposed to an infected person — even if that person isn’t showing any symptoms yet. Moreover, the symptoms can closely resemble the common cold or flu, so it’s important to stay vigilant with washing your hands and staying home if you feel unwell.
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU WERE EXPOSED TO COVID-19 AT WORK?
Your work may have taken steps to help contain the spread of novel coronavirus, like asking employees to work from home and grounding all travel. But what happens if you were exposed to novel coronavirus at work anyway? What if your symptoms don’t show up until later? Does your employer have to cover your medical bills through their workers’ compensation coverage? Are you legally entitled to workers’ comp benefits if you can’t work due to illness caused by COVID-19?
CALIFORNIA WORKERS' COMPENSATION OCCUPATIONAL DISEASES
In California, occupational diseases are covered by workers’ compensation. This includes COVID-19.
** It is probable that the insurance company will contest a COVID-19 claim. If your employer implements stringent precautionary measures to protect its employees from exposure to the coronavirus, an employer may not completely insulate itself from potential workers’ compensation liability if an employee is able to establish they contracted the virus related to an exposure particular to the work and that created a special or increased risk to contracting the virus that was materially greater than the exposure common to the general public.
This will often be a fact based analysis with each case turning on the individual facts in that particular case. Your attorney has the training to make your case as strong as possible.
DOES YOUR WORK PUT YOU MORE AT RISK OF CONTRACTING NOVEL CORONAVIRUS?
A person’s employment may put them in contact with the virus if they travel for work to an area where they are unwittingly exposed to other carriers of the virus. So, if you travel for work and are exposed to COVID-19, do you automatically have a workers’ compensation claim? It depends.
Simply being exposed in a work setting will not likely be enough for it to be covered under workers’ compensation laws. In California, for an injury to be covered by workers’ comp insurance, the person’s occupation would have to place them more at risk for contracting the virus than the general public.
You may want to ask yourself: Does the nature of my job place me more at risk of being exposed and contracting COVID-19 than the general public? This test can be passed by many workers and specifcally essential workers. Do you work in an essential business? Are you working in the healthcare or education fields? Grocery or food service? Prison guards, police, firefighters, EMS? All of these occupations are essential and are particularly subject to a COVID 19 infectin.
CALIFORNIA HEALTHCARE WORKERS, CORONAVIRUS AND WORKERS’ COMP LAWS
At the forefront of the battle against novel coronavirus, nurses, doctors, and other healthcare workers serve a vital role for diagnosis and treatment of the illness. Healthcare workers certainly would be a category of people who cannot avoid contact with a potentially infected person due to the nature of their work. We also know that more healthcare workers have contracted the virus than any other profession.
Healthcare workers like doctors and nurses, along with medical service providers such as EMTs and paramedics, work in occupations that are inevitably going to put them in close or direct contact with COVID-19 patients, thus placing them more at risk for contracting the virus compared to the general public.
OSHA has recently listed industries that may be at a higher risk for exposure. OSHA indicates that people working in the following occupations are at a higher risk of contracting the virus:
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Healthcare
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Deathcare
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Laboratories
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Airline operations
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Border protection
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Solid waste and wastewater management
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Those who travel to areas where the virus is spreading rapidly.
Those who are in other industries not specifically mentioned are at higher risk as well, but might need more legal help to get them compensation, such as teachers and other education workers, grocery workers, prison guards, police, fire, senior care, agricultural workers, factory workers, and anyone else working where social distancing is not enforceable.
OUR WORKERS’ COMP LEGAL TEAM IS HERE FOR YOU
As The Carlo Law Group continues to closely monitor the COVID-19 pandemic, we also continue to serve our clients who were injured at work. Our workers’ compensation lawyers are committed to working with, and for, our clients, even as we remain vigilant of how this pandemic will affect our state.
If you were injured at work in California,
Please do not hesitate to call us today at (408) 292-2003
