Yes. When a South Carolina work injury makes a prior injury worse, it’s still covered under workers’ compensation law.
The involvement of a prior injury does complicate your claim. Workers comp insurance companies deny these cases, blaming your work injury as a continuation of your prior injury. Find out how to protect yourself in a free, no pressure strategy session with a Spartanburg, SC workers’ comp attorney. Call toll free at 888-230-1841 or fill out a Get Help Now form.
To get benefits, you’ll have to prove:
- The work injury worsened the prior injury, or
- The prior injury worsens the work injury.
South Carolina law is very specific about the type of proof required to justify benefits in your situation. The law requires medical evidence showing you’re entitled to benefits despite the prior injury —meaning a doctor’s opinion or testimony to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, or medical records.
For example, say you had a bad back before the work injury. If your bad back didn’t keep you from working or didn’t even bother you until you hurt it at work, you should be entitled to workers’ comp benefits. Importantly, if you satisfy the proof requirements, you can also be compensated for your permanent disability caused by the combination of the prior injury and your work injury. For an explanation how these benefits work, see the other articles on this site, especially those listed below.
While the South Carolina workers’ compensation law helps workers whose prior injuries are made worse by work, it is not an easy ticket to ride. You must be very careful about submitting the proper proof to satisfy a skeptical insurance company who doesn’t want to pay you or, if the claim is contested all the way to a hearing, be sure the evidence satisfies the legal standard judged by the Commission.
If you have a prior injury that got made worse by work, feel free to call us at 888.230.1841 to set up a free meeting to discuss whether your employer’s insurance company should help fix it and most importantly, to protect your rights to these important benefits you could lose if the claim is not presented properly. You can also send us an email or a live chat right from where you are.
