What’s A Work Injury Under The Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act?

When most of us think about “work injuries”, we think about accidents that happen while at the workplace. However, in 1972, the Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Act eliminated the requirement of an accident and instead substituted the term injury.

The Broad Definition of “Injury”

The term “injury” has been broadly interpreted to include any injury to an employee, regardless of his previous physical condition, arising in the course of his employment and related thereto, and includes aggravation, reactivation, acceleration, or death resulting from the injury.

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An injury does not even need to be pinpointed to a specific event as long as the injury arises in the course of employment and is related to the employment. Cumulative or repetitive injuries that occur over a period of time are compensable under the Act.

Injuries In The Course Of Employment

An injury need not occur at the employee’s worksite. Injuries that occur while working from an employer-approved home office can be compensable. Even momentary departures from work, such as using bathroom facilities, do not remove an employee from the course of employment. Employer-run gyms on premises that employees were encouraged to use were held to be in the course of employment. Injuries suffered while engaged in a softball game on a company-sponsored team have also been held to be compensable. Similarly, injuries while attending company-sponsored picnics have been found to be compensable. An employer’s “premises” has even been broadly construed to include parking lots and building lobbies.

Good Samaritans are also covered under the Act. If an employee is injured while going to the aid of a person at the scene of an emergency has not abandoned the course of employment and is entitled to compensation.

Understand Your Rights as an Injured Employee!

Therefore, if an employee feels that his injury may have some relationship to his or her job, they should promptly consult a Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Attorney for guidance in filing a claim.

As seasoned work injury attorneys, we are equipped with the expertise and knowledge to analyze your case and build a strategy that will win you the best compensation. As a boutique law firm, we provide our clients with a higher level of dedicated services that most large law firms cannot match. We are also financially leveraged to go against the big guys and come out winning.

If you or a loved one has been injured at work, feel free to reach out to us at (215) 206-9068 and benefit from a free, no-obligation consultation with our award-winning work injury attorney, Michael Cardamone.