Back & Spinal Injuries at Work

Back and spinal injuries are among the most common workplace injuries across the Southeastern United States — and they are also among the most aggressively contested by workers’ compensation insurance carriers. Whether the injury happened in a single traumatic event or developed over years of physical labor, workers dealing with back and neck pain often find themselves fighting for the medical care and wage benefits they need to recover.

At Maples, Connick & Brendel, we represent workers across the Gulf Coast with back and spinal injuries caused on the job, from warehouse and construction workers to nurses, delivery drivers, and manufacturing employees.

Types of Work-Related Back and Spinal Injuries

Our attorneys handle workers’ comp claims involving herniated and bulging discs in the lumbar and cervical spine, lumbar and cervical strains and sprains, pinched nerves and radiculopathy that causes pain, numbness, or weakness in the arms or legs, spinal fractures from falls or crush injuries, spinal cord injuries resulting in partial or total paralysis, and the aggravation of pre-existing spinal conditions by a workplace incident.

Why Back Claims Get Disputed

Insurance carriers dispute back and spinal injury claims more aggressively than almost any other category because they are often expensive, long-running, and difficult to document with a single objective image. Common tactics include arguing the injury is pre-existing or degenerative rather than work-related, claiming the worker failed to immediately report the incident, pointing to prior back complaints in medical records to undercut causation, and sending the worker to IME doctors who minimize the injury.

We push back with full medical records, treating physician reports, expert opinion on causation, and when necessary, depositions that expose the flaws in the insurance carrier’s position.

The Treatment You Are Entitled To

A proper course of treatment for a serious back injury may include conservative care such as physical therapy and medication, diagnostic imaging including MRI, injections such as epidural steroid injections, surgical intervention including discectomy, laminectomy, or fusion, and pain management for chronic conditions.

Workers’ comp insurers routinely try to limit treatment to the cheapest option available. We work to ensure that the treatment your doctors recommend is actually authorized and paid for.

Permanent Impairment and Long-Term Benefits

Back and spinal injuries frequently result in permanent physical impairment, even after surgery and rehabilitation. States across the Southeastern United States all have systems for compensating permanent impairment, whether through impairment ratings, scheduled benefits, or long-term disability. We make sure permanent impairment is properly documented and that our clients receive the full benefits the law allows.

If you have a back or spinal injury from a workplace incident, contact us today for a free case review.