How Much Compensation for Knee Injury at Work?
The knees are some of the most commonly injured parts of the body due to work-related accidents. These injuries can be devastating, affecting your mobility and capability to earn a living, perform daily tasks and more. As such, knee injury victims can hold their employers responsible for the damage sustained and receive compensation to minimize the injury’s impact.
Based on past cases awards and accounting for inflation, the damages awarded due to knee injuries resulting from accidents range between $14,206 – $64,553. The specific amount awarded is based on severity of the injury, the degree of employer’s liability and several other factors.
As experienced personal injury lawyers, we have successfully represented many knee injury victims across Ontario, obtaining the reimbursement they deserve. Our team understands the far reaching effects of an injury and we strive to ensure that our clients’ get the finances needed for proper treatment and recovery.
What are The Typical Causes of Knee Injuries?
The knee can easily sustain injuries from a wide array of accidents at work, mostly through impact and unnatural twisting. Some of the most common causes of knee injuries include:
1) Slip, Trip, and Fall Accidents
Slip, trip and fall accidents are the top cause of work-related injuries and the leading reason for worker’s compensation claims. This is not surprising as some workplaces, such as industries and warehouses, tend to have wet or oily floors that can easily lead to accidents if proper safety measures are not followed. Other scenarios that lead to injuries at work include unsecured holes at construction sites, clutter and falling off ladders or levels.
These types of accidents can cause the knee to twist unnaturally leading to teared tendons, meniscus and ligaments. If you slip, trip or fall at work or a business premise, whether as an employee or customer, the employer or owner of the business could be liable for any resulting injuries. This is because they owe everyone in their property a duty of care.
2) Auto Accidents
For persons working in the transportation, construction and other industries that utilize automobiles, knee injuries can be a result of motor vehicle accidents. If your work vehicle collides with other cars, motorcycles, pedestrians or fixed objects due to a malfunction or other reasons and you sustain an injury, your employer could be liable.
During an auto accident, the knee can strike parts of the car or other objects leading to impact injuries, such as fractured or unstable patella.
3) Contact with Objects and Equipment
Working in warehouses and high-risk industries requires one to follow certain set policies and heightened awareness of your surroundings. However, even when you follow all the set policies and protocols, accidents can happen. Dropped loads, poorly guarded machinery, falling tools, collapsing structures and more can lead to injuries, including severe knee injuries.
How Severe Are Knee Injuries?
Knee injuries range from soft tissue injuries to severe damage of the knee cap and surrounding tissues. Some of the most common injuries sustained at work include:
- Torn meniscus
- Quadriceps tendon tear
- Medial cruciate ligament (MCL) tear
- Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear
- Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) tear
- Chondral injuries
- Soft tissue injuries
- Fractured patella
- Patella instability
Given that the knee connects major bones and muscles, any injury can be significant for the rest of your life. Even when an injury seems minor, it can get worse if not treated properly and the effects can be consequential. Therefore, get proper imaging to determine the severity of your injury for proper treatment and recovery.
Severe knee injuries require surgery, especially when there was a pre-existing knee condition. Others heal without surgery. Either way, treatment is expensive and a knee injury can hinder your capability to work. Therefore, it’s important to seek compensation for any expenses and losses arising from your knee injury.
Seeking Compensation for A Knee Injury
Your mobility is essential for the performance of daily tasks such as taking care of your family, working, having fun, personal care, housekeeping and more. A knee injury disrupts your ability to walk and perform these duties.
When seeking compensation, one factor that largely influences the award you get is the impact of the knee injury to your day to day life. In other words, the degree to which it has disrupted your life.
Therefore, after a workplace injury, it’s important to be straightforward from the get go. That is, you should tell your doctors exactly how you feel, including the severity of the pain. Also, you should ask for imaging to show the extent of your injuries. Being open and thorough during treatment creates records that support your claim. To make sure that everything is documented, use the PQRST method to correctly describe pain to your doctor.
| PQRST PAIN ASSESSMENT MODEL | |
| P – Palliative factors
Provocative factors |
What makes it worse?
What makes it better? |
| Q – Quality | Describe the pain |
| R – Radioactive/ Region | Where is the pain?
Does it spread to other parts? |
| S – Severity | How severe is the pain compared with other pain you have experienced?
How much does it affect your life? |
| T – Temporal factors | Does the intensity of the pain change over time? |
Insurance companies try to keep compensations to a minimum or deny your claim altogether. One way they try to do this is claiming that the accident did not result in your injury. This happens when you have pre-existing knee conditions, such as a previous injury. Therefore, it’s important to explain the accident in detail to your lawyer, doctors, and insurance company to show that it was the cause of your injury. Causation plays a huge role in any settlement.
As stated earlier, a knee injury disrupts your daily life. To receive a fair settlement, it’s important to determine the extent to which an injury impacts your ability to work, enjoy certain activities that you used to, grow your career, perform daily tasks and more. Generally, the higher the impact to your daily life, the higher the damages you’ll receive.
To ensure that you receive a fair settlement, one should retain an experienced knee injury lawyer in Ontario for legal guidance. Bergel Magence LLP has years of experience in this personal injury law and they can ensure that your rights are protected and receive the compensation you deserve.
Quantifying The Claim
This involves figuring out what your claim is worth. In other words, putting value on what you have lost and incurred as a result of the knee injury suffered. This is done by looking at how the court valued similar losses in the past.
Although some losses are obvious and simpler to estimate, such as financial losses and medical costs, others are not. However, even the simplest losses require professional guidance to calculate or else you’ll be under-compensated.
The most difficult losses to quantify include pain and suffering, caretaker needs, loss of the ability to physically carry out daily tasks, loss of earning capacity and future medical care needs.
Working with a lawyer and medical professionals, such as an Occupational Therapist, can help quantify your claim. An Occupational Therapist is particularly valuable as they’ll be with you throughout your recovery. This means that they’ll experience the impact of your knee injury to your life and can provide a detailed medical valuation to demonstrate the difficulties you’re facing due to the damage sustained.
As skilled and committed lawyers, we will take our time to understand your life before and after the accident. This will help our team to clearly demonstrate what you have lost and obtain a fair settlement.
Schedule Your Free Consultation
If you have suffered a knee injury or any other personal injury due to the recklessness of another party, please reach out to Bergel Magence personal injury lawyers. We offer free, no-obligation consultations.