The Right to Compensation for Psychiatric Injuries Deriving From Physical Injuries

Last week there was a recent string of news stories involving workers falling from great heights and suffering catastrophic injuries.  In San Francisco, a window washer fell from 11 stories and is still fighting for his life.  Also a tree trimmer in San Diego, who was 40 feet in the air, was killed when palm fronds fell on him and pinned him against a building.  In our office, an injured worker who fell 80 feet while trimming palm fronds in Beverly Hills is making an optimistic recovery.  I find all these cases interesting in that the law has recently changed, denying injured workers in many instances the right to derivative psychiatric injuries suffering from physical injuries.  The question I have is will the injured worker in San Francisco realize that he has the right to file for psychiatric injuries for physical complaints resulting from violent or catastrophic incidence.  Certainly, a window washer falling from a suspended scaffolding or a tree trimmer falling from his harness would be considered to be violent.  I know that for the tree trimmer that I represent that will be part of his claim, and sadly something he needs treatment for, potentially for the rest of his life.  Here at the Law Offices of Sef Krell, we try to think of intelligent, out of the box theories that will assist our clients in maximizing their receipt of benefits in workers’ compensation.