Nurses & Nursing Staff
Nurses and nursing staff face unique risks and injuries on the job. Rodich Law provides workers’ compensation representation to help injured employees protect their rights and secure the benefits they deserve.
Nursing is one of the most physically demanding and selfless professions in California. You’re lifting patients who can’t support their own weight, moving fast in rooms crowded with equipment, and handling needles and sharps dozens of times a shift.
It’s no surprise nurses get hurt on the job more often than almost any other profession in California. What surprises people is how often a legitimate injury gets questioned, delayed, or lowballed once a claim gets filed.
Rodich Law has spent five decades representing hospital and healthcare staff across Woodland Hills and Southern California, and we know exactly how these claims get handled and where they tend to go wrong.
If you are a nurse or nursing assistant who has been injured on the job, Rodich Law is here to provide clear, practical guidance. Fill out our online form or call us today at (818) 888-3000 for a free consultation.
Every unit has its own injury risks, and the claims process looks a little different depending on how and where the injury happened.
Needlestick injuries carry a risk most other workplace injuries don’t: exposure to bloodborne pathogens like Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and HIV. Beyond the physical injury itself, nurses often need testing, prophylactic treatment, and follow-up monitoring for months afterward, along with time off while waiting on results. Insurers sometimes try to treat these as minor incidents because the visible wound is small. We push for coverage of the full course of testing and treatment, not just the initial ER visit.
Repositioning patients, transferring them between beds and wheelchairs, and catching a patient who’s falling are some of the leading causes of back injuries, shoulder tears, and herniated discs among nursing staff. These injuries can happen in a single bad lift or build up gradually over months of repetitive strain, and insurers frequently dispute cumulative trauma claims, arguing the injury existed before the job or came from something outside work. We know how to document a pattern of injury over time and connect it directly to your job duties.
We represent nurses in West Covina and across the San Gabriel Valley who are hurt lifting, moving and transferring patients.
Combative patients, agitated family members, and unsafe staffing ratios put nurses at real risk of assault on the job, whether that’s in an ER, a psychiatric unit, or a general med-surg floor. These injuries can be physical, psychological, or both, and claims involving PTSD or anxiety following an assault are often harder to get approved than a broken bone. We build these cases with the same seriousness we’d give any physical injury, because the impact on your ability to keep working is just as real.
Wet floors, cluttered hallways, and long shifts on your feet make falls a frequent cause of injury in hospitals and clinics. These claims tend to be more straightforward, but timing matters. Reporting the fall right away and getting seen quickly protects the claim from an insurer arguing the injury happened somewhere else.
Beyond needlesticks, nurses face exposure to chemicals, infectious disease, and hazardous drugs used in treatment. These claims often take longer to develop and can be harder to prove because the illness shows up well after the exposure. We know how to build the medical timeline needed to connect an occupational illness back to the workplace.
Gary Rodich is a Board Certified Specialist in workers’ compensation law who spent time working on the insurance side before representing injured workers, and who also served as a Pro Tem Judge. That background means we go into a nursing claim already knowing how an insurer will evaluate it and how a judge will weigh the evidence if it comes to a hearing. Barry Rodich brings decades of additional experience to the same table.
We handle every stage of the claim, starting with getting the paperwork filed correctly so there’s no easy technicality for a denial. From there, we deal directly with the insurance company, coordinate with your treating physicians, and keep pressure on when an insurer tries to cut off treatment early or push you back to full duty before your body’s actually ready. If the claim gets denied, we handle the appeal, including depositions, medical-legal evaluations, and hearings before a workers’ comp judge.
When it’s time to talk settlement, we calculate the real value of your claim based on your injury, any permanent disability rating, future medical care, and what the injury has cost you in lost wages and earning capacity. We negotiate from that number rather than settling for whatever’s offered first, and if a case needs to go to trial, we’re ready for that too.
We take nursing workers’ comp cases on contingency, so there’s no cost upfront and no legal fee at all unless we recover money on your behalf. Between hospital shifts, medical appointments, and recovery, the last thing you need is a legal bill piling up on top of everything else.
We offer free consultations in person or over video, so you can talk to us around your shift schedule instead of taking time off just to ask questions. We also have Spanish-speaking staff available for clients who’d rather discuss their case in Spanish.
Rodich Law has recovered millions of dollars for injured workers across Woodland Hills and Southern California, including nurses and hospital staff dealing with exactly the kinds of injuries described above. What clients bring up most is that they had someone answering their calls and explaining what was happening at each stage, instead of being left to guess while their claim sat in limbo.
Hospital systems and their insurers see a lot of workers’ comp claims, and that experience cuts both ways. On one hand, they’re used to processing legitimate injuries. On the other, they’ve got a playbook for minimizing payouts, and nurses run into a few common tactics.
One is being pressured to return to modified duty before you’re actually ready, sometimes with restrictions that don’t match your real limitations. Another is having a claim’s severity downplayed, especially with soft tissue injuries or psychological trauma that don’t show up clearly on imaging. A third is disputing whether a cumulative injury from years of patient handling is actually work-related at all.
Knowing these tactics ahead of time is half the battle, and it’s why having someone in your corner from the start, rather than after a denial letter shows up, tends to make the biggest difference in how a claim plays out.
If you’ve been hurt on the job as a nurse in Woodland Hills, what you say to a claims adjuster in those first few days can shape the rest of your case. You don’t need to have every detail sorted out before reaching out. Tell us what happened, and we’ll walk you through what your claim should look like and what to watch out for next.
Get started with a free, confidential case review to discuss your rights and discover your options. Contact Rodich Law online or call us today at (818) 888-3000. Hablamos español.
Rodich Law focuses exclusively on workers' compensation, helping injured workers protect their rights and pursue the benefits they deserve. We represent workers across a wide range of industries and workplace injuries.
Workers' Compensation
