Content reviewed by:
Alex Shulman
Shulman & Hill Injury Lawyers helps injured correction officers pursue workers’ compensation benefits, third-party claims, and related benefit issues after line-of-duty injuries.
Since 2013, our Greenburgh corrections officer injury lawyers have represented injured New Yorkers in high-stakes work injury cases. We understand that correction officers face risks most workers never encounter, including inmate assaults, forced movements, transport crashes, unsafe facility conditions, exposure events, and injuries tied to long tours on hard floors.
If you were hurt while working in a jail, prison, transport unit, court detail, hospital watch, or another assigned post, we can explain your options and take over the claim process. Contact Shulman & Hill today for a free consultation with a Greenburgh workers’ compensation lawyer.
Work Injuries Correction Officers Face
Correction officers are often injured during fast-moving incidents where there is little time to react. A housing unit disturbance, a restraint failure, a wet corridor, or an unsafe transport vehicle can cause injuries that affect your career and daily life.
We handle correction officer injury claims involving the following types of injuries and accidents:
- Inmate assaults
- Use-of-force incidents
- Cell extractions
- Slips, trips, and falls
- Stairway and corridor accidents
- Faulty gates, doors, locks, restraints, or chairs
- Transport crashes
- Perimeter patrol injuries
- Exposure to bodily fluids
- Smoke, chemical, or pepper spray exposure
- Back, neck, shoulder, knee, and wrist injuries
- Head trauma and concussions
- Respiratory conditions
- Work-related stress injuries where New York law allows the claim
Our Greenburgh personal injury lawyers look at what you were assigned to do, what happened at the post, who saw it, what reports were made, and how the injury changed your ability to work.
Why Choose Our Greenburgh Corrections Officer Injury Lawyers
Shulman & Hill brings serious New York work injury experience to these claims. We have recovered over $1 billion for injured clients and bring more than 200 years of combined experience to cases involving workplace harm, disputed benefits, and claims against outside parties.
When you hire us, we can:
- Handle the insurance carrier.
- Prepare filings and hearing proof.
- Review facility records.
- Document your actual post duties.
- Work with your medical providers.
- Challenge unfair IME reports.
- Evaluate third-party claims.
- Review settlement offers.
- Protect deadlines tied to your claim.
Our goal is to build the strongest claim possible and pursue the full benefits and compensation available under New York law.
Workers’ Compensation for Correction Officers in New York
Most correction officers hurt in the course of employment can seek New York workers’ compensation benefits. You do not need to prove that your employer intended to cause harm or that someone broke a rule to open a claim.
Workers’ compensation may pay for:
- Medical care for the work injury.
- Medication.
- Physical therapy.
- Specialist visits.
- Diagnostic testing.
- Wage replacement if you are out of work.
- Partial wage benefits if you return at lower pay.
- Awards for lasting loss of use of certain body parts.
- Longer-term benefits for qualifying permanent disability.
- Death benefits for eligible family members after a fatal injury.
Wage and Permanent Injury Benefits
New York workers’ compensation wage benefits are generally based on a percentage of your average weekly wage, subject to the statewide maximum for your date of injury.
Medical reports, work restrictions, and Workers’ Compensation Board findings can affect how much you receive and for how long.
Schedule Loss of Use Awards
If you have permanent loss of function in a covered body part, such as an arm, hand, leg, foot, finger, toe, eyesight, or hearing, you may be eligible for a Schedule Loss of Use award.
These awards often follow injuries such as shoulder tears, knee damage, wrist injuries, hand injuries, hearing loss, or vision damage.
Classification for Non-Schedule Injuries
Some injuries, including many back, neck, head, and psychiatric injury claims, are handled differently. The Board may review your loss of wage-earning capacity, work limits, medical proof, and ability to return to correction work or other employment.
Reporting the Injury and Filing the Claim
Facility reports are not always enough to protect your workers’ compensation claim. You should give written notice of the injury to your employer as soon as possible. Under New York law, notice is generally required within 30 days.
You should also file Form C-3 with the New York State Workers’ Compensation Board. In most cases, that filing must be made within two years of the injury. For occupational disease claims, timing can depend on disablement and when you knew the condition was work-related.
Shulman & Hill can help you:
- Prepare the workers’ compensation filing.
- Identify every injured body part.
- Review facility reports.
- Gather medical records.
- Respond to the insurance carrier.
- Prepare for hearings.
- Address return-to-work disputes.
- Evaluate settlement options.
A claim can become harder when the first reports leave out facts, downplay pain, or fail to list all injuries. We work to correct the record early.
Third-Party Claims for Injured Correction Officers
Workers’ compensation can provide medical and wage benefits, but it does not pay for pain and suffering. A third-party lawsuit may be available if someone outside your employer caused or contributed to the injury.
Possible third-party claims may involve:
- A negligent driver in a transport crash.
- A company that made defective restraints or equipment.
- A contractor that created a hazard inside the facility.
- A vendor that left unsafe conditions in a work area.
- A property owner or manager responsible for an off-site detail location.
- A maintenance company that failed to repair dangerous equipment.
These claims can seek damages beyond workers’ compensation, including pain and suffering, full lost earnings, and future financial loss.
Our Greenburgh corrections officer injury attorneys can review both paths together so your workers’ compensation claim and third-party case do not work against each other.
Speak With a Greenburgh Corrections Officer Injury Attorney
Shulman & Hill helps injured correction officers take the next legal step after assaults, falls, transport crashes, exposure events, equipment failures, and other work-related injuries.
You focus on treatment and your family. We can handle the claim, deal with the carrier, prepare for hearings, and identify whether any outside party may be legally responsible.
Contact our office today for a free consultation with one of our corrections officer injury attorneys in Greenburgh. New York, We Got You.