By Richard N. Schibell, Esq
In New Jersey’s workers’ compensation system, not all injuries announce themselves in an instant. Many injuries build in silence, day after day, until a worker can no longer ignore the toll. Cumulative trauma workers’ compensation cases in New Jersey often involve years of repetitive effort—of shoulders that strain under decades of lifting, wrists that stiffen after years of precise motion, and backs that protest after endless hours of bending and carrying. These injuries grow slowly, but their impact can be as profound as any sudden fall or accident.
A Career of Representing Workers
In my practice, I see the quiet cost of labor. My clients span every trade and industry, from the factory floors of the north to the delivery routes that cut across the state. While I often stand in the Freehold workers’ compensation court, my reach extends wherever workers bring their effort and, too often, their pain.
Insurance carriers may try to draw a line in these cases, suggesting that if there was no single incident, there can be no claim. But work leaves its mark, and the law must see that. My role is to ensure that cumulative trauma—whether it emerges in a warehouse, a hospital, or on the road—receives the recognition and compensation it deserves.
Tracing the Path of Injury
Building a case for cumulative trauma begins with the worker’s own account: the long hours, the tasks that repeat until they become second nature, the slow onset of discomfort that one day refuses to be ignored. These are not stories that fit neatly into a single accident report, but they are the stories that define how injury and labor intersect.
I work with clients to piece together those patterns—showing how each shift and each movement carried the body closer to injury. Medical records, job descriptions, and witness accounts become the framework of these cases, each one adding clarity to the story of how work can wear a body down over time.
The Role of Medical Evidence
In cumulative trauma claims, medical documentation carries exceptional weight. A report hat overlooks the daily repetition of tasks risks reducing a lifetime of effort to a foot note. I work with physicians who understand these injuries, ensuring that every evaluation captures the real cost of labor—the strain that doesn’t appear in a single test, but emerges in the measured limitations of a shoulder that no longer lifts or a back that no longer bends.
When insurers produce reports that seek to minimize what work has done, I challenge those findings. In every hearing, my job is to make sure the medical evidence speaks to the truth of how these injuries unfold.
Injuries That Change a Life
Cumulative trauma takes many forms. I have seen carpal tunnel syndrome in office workers whose hands never rest, rotator cuff tears in tradespeople who lift and reach beyond comfort, degenerative disc injuries in drivers who sit for hours without relief. These are injuries that don’t always appear in a single scan, but they change how a person lives—how they work, how they sleep, how they carry the weight of daily life.
Timelines and Legal Deadlines
In New Jersey, the law gives workers two years from when they knew—or should have known—that their condition is tied to their job. In cumulative trauma cases, that moment of recognition can be subtle, a slow dawning of how deeply work has shaped the pain. I help my clients ensure that no deadline passes unnoticed, that every right is preserved.
Understanding the Work, Understanding the Claim
Cumulative trauma cases call for a lawyer who understands how work shapes the body. Outside the courtroom, I’ve spent years with the same tools and challenges my clients know well—clearing brush, building, repairing, feeling firsthand the strain that accumulates in shoulders and backs. That perspective shapes how I prepare every case: with respect for the labor involved and the steady confidence that comes from doing the job right.
Let’s Talk About Your Rights
Cumulative trauma may build slowly, but it can end a career in an instant. Across New Jersey, I work to ensure that those years of effort are seen and that the injuries that result are not left in the shadows.
If you’re living with pain that has grown from your work, call my office at 732-774-1000 or send us an email. I’ll ensure that your story is heard, your injuries are respected, and your rights are fully protected.
