When the  Missouri Legislature passed “Work Comp” reform in 2005 the goal was to payback insurance companies and business groups for their support. The winner always gets the spoils, but this time fairness and common sense had to take a far back seat to expediency. Older workers were punished -for aging!!  Section 190, subsection 3 states that ”Any award of compensation shall be reduced by an amount proportional to the permanent partial disability determined to be a preexisting disease or condition or attributed to the natural process of aging sufficient to cause or prolong the disability or need of treatment. Reduced by “the natural process of aging!” Believe it or not,the intent of the legislature was to punish workers for the natural aging process.

When do we punish people for aging? From the age of 35? What about 20? Why doesn’t a worker get a bonus for healing faster, if he is young? Every middle aged worker is going to have some arthritis, or may have diabetes or some frailness as time goes on. Now the older worker is to be penalized if his “natural aging” prolongs his disability or treatment. So if you don’t bounce back at 50 the way you did when you were 25 because your body has become more frail, then the insurance company should be able to make you pay for your own treatment and at the same time cut off your lost time benefits. Where’s the outrage from groups life AARP and other advocates for older citizens? Too bad we can’t reduce the pay of Missouri legislators as they get older! Nevermind, they always stand up for themselves when it comes to their own pay raises and retirement benefits, but there is no common sense when it comes to injured workers.

I have been totally surprised by the misinformation which has been spread after the passage of the new tort reform law. Since the law was passed by  Missouri lawmakers in 2005, I have had numerous calls from injured workers who have been told that “work comp” doesn’t pay on carpal tunnel cases anymore. This simply isn’t true! There have been changes in the law and the bar has been raised, but carpal tunnel and other repetitive motion claims are still alive and well, despite what you may have heard . At one time, the law was more lax and a case was compensable if work simply “triggered” an injury .The bar was then raised so that a worker had to prove that work was a “substantial factor”in producing an injury. The standard now is that the injured worker must show that work was “the prevailing” or the “domminant factor” in producing an injury. While this is a more difficult standard, it is an exaggeration, or a misrepresentation, for your employer or an insurance adjuster to tell you that “workmans comp” doesn’t provide compensation for “repetitive trauma injuries” anymore. This is also true of other repetitive trauma claims like “epicondylitis” (tennis elbow),”De Quervains Syndrome”,”tendonitis”, “ulnar nerve entrapment”, “cubital tunnel” ,”rotator cuff ” injuries, “shoulder impingement” syndrome “reflex sympathetic dystrophy”, “herniated disc” injuries and a host of other others. In conlusion, please spead the word that  to your fellow workers so that they are not mislead. When in doubt, contact an experienced Missouri “work comp lawyer”. Submitted by Jeff Swaney FREE CONSULTATION 314-481-7778