A common scenario seen in my Upstate New York Workers’ Compensation Law practice involve injuries occurred while traveling to or from causally related medical appointments.

By causally related medical appointment, we mean a doctors or physical therapy appointment that someone is attending to secure medical care for a work related injury. For example, if you are on your way to a doctor’s appointment and are involved in a motor vehicle accident any injuries resulting from the car accident should be covered as a “consequential injury”.

Any personal act or non-related errand mitigates the causal connection needed to prove a consequential injury. For instance, assume that someone with a work related back injury has just been treated by his or her chiropractor. That person decided to stop for lunch on the way home from the chiropractor’s office. Following lunch, the claimant is injured in a motor vehicle accident traveling from the restaurant to their home. In this situation, the injuries from the motor vehicle accident will likely not be covered under the Workers’ Compensation case since stopping for lunch represents a personal act following their visit to the chiropractor.

If you have questions regarding consequential injuries, feel free to contact my office for a free consultation.