Every company seems to be in fierce competition in their business nowadays. While aspiring to be better than your competitors can obviously help a company balloon its profits, being under constant pressure and working in a fast-paced work environment can take a toll on employees’ physical and mental health.
“Wait, but why are we even talking about this?” you may be wondering right now. Our Los Angeles stress-related injury attorney William Kropach explains why this conversation actually matters. Here is the deal: there are millions of workers in Los Angeles and all across California who put an incredible amount of effort into their jobs at the expense of their psychological and mental health.
In other words, these workers are fatigued, stressed out, depressed, anxious, struggle with insomnia, and all other symptoms of stress-related injuries at work. But you can actually obtain workers compensation benefits for your stress-related injuries. However, there are a few things you need to know about stress-related injury workers compensation claims before seeking compensation.
In order for your stress-related injury to qualify for workers compensation benefits, you must be able to find evidence that your stress is related to your job. “Wait, how is it even possible to prove something like this?” you may wonder. Glad you have asked!
You see, courts in Los Angeles and all across California recognize that stress can be caused both at work and outside of work. When combined, an unbearable amount of stress can cause deterioration in an employee’s mental, emotional, psychological, and even physical health.
Our Los Angeles workers compensation attorney from the Law Offices of Kropach & Kropach explains that you only have to present evidence that workplace conditions or your job duties were the predominant cause of your stress-related injury. In other words, it needs to be work-related for at least 51 percent. Contrary to popular belief, you do not have to show that your job or work activities were the sole cause of your stress-related injuries.
While the exact factors that contribute to stress depend on the type of personality that you have and vary from one case to another, there are certain principal causes of work-related stress that are recognized by courts in Los Angeles and elsewhere in California. Those include:
Unlike many other states, California requires you to have been employed for at least six months before filing a stress-related workers compensation claim. And it makes sense considering that stress develops over time. So if you happen to be stressed out during your first week of work, it is probably because you are working in a new environment (something that happens to all of us; not a valid cause to receive compensation) or because your stress was predominantly caused by factors outside of work.
The reason why so many stress-related workers compensation claims fail all across California every year is because work-related stress can be extremely difficult to prove. Not to mention that your employer and his/her insurance company will most likely do whatever it takes to discredit your claim by investigating your life and arguing that your stress was caused by factors that were not related to work.
Believe it or not, employers in California are not willing to hand out workers compensation benefits without putting up a fight (and the same goes for their insurance companies). But it could have been much worse, as many states in our country do not allow employees to file stress-related workers compensation claims at all.
In order to boost your chances of proving that your stress was work-related and to properly evaluate the value of your claim, seek the legal advice of our Los Angeles stress-related injury lawyer from the Law Offices of Kropach & Kropach. Call our offices at 818-609-7005 or complete this contact form to get a free consultation today.
