Attorney Bailey Ott Wins Bilateral CTS Claim

LOIS Attorney Bailey Ott was recently able to successfully have a bilateral carpal tunnel/wrists claim disallowed at the Pre-Hearing Conference as being time-barred. The claimant alleged injuries due to repetitive use of her hands. Her initial medical records she submitted to the Board were from August 10, 2015 and noted that the claimant had onset of carpal tunnel syndrome two months prior from overuse. On the date of the Pre-Hearing Conference Claimant’s counsel uploaded a medical report from a June 9th examination. In that medical report it was noted that the claimant had “been experiencing this since approximately 2015 while working as a program director performing repetitive activities such as excessive typing, lifting, pushing, pulling, cleaning, et cetera.” Further, in the doctor’s treatment plain he noted, “I would strongly recommend inclusion/establishment of bilateral hand/wrists due to repetitive mechanism/occupational disease due to activities performed at work as of 2015 as described.” We vehemently argued that this was proof that the claimant knew or shoulder have known that she had developed this condition as a result of her work in 2015, which was supported by the three medical reports in the Board File from 2015.

The Law Judge agreed with our position and disallowed the claim as it was time-barred. He noted that it was clear that the claimant had been experiencing these symptoms since 2015. He pointed out that the key phrase in the medical report was “while working as a program director performing repetitive activities.” The Law Judge explained that for an ODNCR claim to stand, it must be made within two years from the time the claimant was first diagnosed, or should have known that the symptoms or injury were causally related to a work related activity, which in this case the claimant clearly did know. The Law Judge disallowed the claim citing our argument that the latest the claim could have been brought was 2017, which was now three years too late.