Four Categories of Workplace Injuries Recognized in Pennsylvania Courts
Apr 12th, 2007 | By Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. | Category: Blogs, Pennsylvania Injury InformationRecently, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court clarified the four categories of workers’ compensation injuries. The first category is “physical-physical” injuries, where a physical stimulus causes a physical injury. An example of a physical-physical injury is a broken bone from a fall at work.
The second category is “psychic-physical” injuries, where a psychic stimulus causes a physical injury. An example is a heart attack from stressful working conditions.
The third category is “physical-psychic” injuries, where a physical stimulus causes a psychic injury. An example is depression following a broken bone from a fall at work.
Finally, the last category is “psychic-psychic” injuries, where a psychic stimulus causes a psychic injury. Depression following sexual harassment at work is an example of a psychic-psychic injury.
When a worker claims to have suffered a psychic-psychic injury, he or she has to go an extra mile to prove the claim. Rather than simply proving that the injury exists and is work related, a worker with a psychic-psychic injury has to prove that the injury was not just a subjective or personal reaction to normal working conditions. The worker must prove that the working conditions that caused the psychic-psychic injury were “abnormal”.
Michael L. Saile, Jr., Esq. of Saile & Saile LLP, Attorneys-at-Law focuses his practice on fighting for plaintiffs’ personal injury victim’s rights in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey. We handle all serious injuries, car accidents (both limited and full tort), wrongful death, slip & fall downs, construction accidents, Septa, NJ Transit, and other cases other cases. We are located just outside of Philadelphia in lower Bucks County. Please visit our personal injury only website at www.pa-nj-injurylawyer.com for more injury information.
