Restrictions written too loosely
No lifting over a weight limit, with nothing said about standing or walking. A foot injury needs restrictions in the language of time on your feet, and a note that omits it gets read as no restriction at all.
Workers' Compensation
Foot and Ankle Injuries at Work
The injury is rarely the argument. The argument is the light duty job, and whether it is a real one.
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A claim that turns on a job description rather than on a diagnosis.
Foot injuries at work are usually undisputed. A load is dropped, a forklift runs over a boot, somebody comes off a ladder. There is a date, a witness and an incident report, and the employer rarely suggests it happened somewhere else.
What follows is different. Within weeks there is an offer of light duty, described as seated work, and the pressure to take it is considerable. Refusing can affect compensation. Accepting can mean spending the day doing something the injury cannot actually tolerate, and then being recorded as fit for work.
Almost every foot claim that goes wrong goes wrong at that point. The question is not whether you can sit down. It is whether the job as actually performed requires you to be on your feet, and whether the restrictions were written by somebody who understood the difference.
What this page covers
Crush injuries, heel and midfoot fractures, ankle fractures and ligament damage, puncture wounds, burns, and the complications that follow, including hardware that has to stay in and pain that does not settle.
- The job on paper Seated, light, accommodating. That is the description.
- The job as performed Standing at a bench, crossing a site, stairs and ladders.
- The safety boot problem A swollen foot does not go into steel toe. That ends a lot of returns.
- Standing tolerance The measurement that decides this claim, and the one nobody records.
What a foot injury at work involves
Including the joints further up that take the load while you walk differently.
Where foot claims are lost
Four points, all of them in the weeks after the injury rather than at the injury itself.
The light duty job is not what it says
Described as seated, performed standing at a bench or moving between areas. If the role you are offered does not match its description, say so in writing at the time, because it is very hard to establish afterwards.
Footwear that will not go on
Required safety boots, swelling, hardware and dressings do not coexist. This is an ordinary practical obstacle that ends a return to work, and it belongs in the medical restrictions rather than in an argument with a supervisor.
Complications treated as a new problem
Persistent pain out of proportion to the injury, nonunion, hardware failure, and the knee, hip or back that has taken the load. These flow from the original injury and generally have to be requested as additional allowed conditions rather than assumed.
What standing tolerance means, and how to get it into the file
Every serious foot claim comes down to one number that is almost never written down: how long you can be on your feet before you have to stop.
Not how far you can walk once. Not whether you can walk at all. How long you can stand and move about, in one stretch, and how many of those stretches you have in a day. That is the measure an employer’s offer of work should be tested against, and it is the measure a claim for continuing compensation stands or falls on.
How it gets into the record
By asking for it specifically. A treating physician writing no prolonged standing has said something an employer can interpret however it likes. A physician writing a limit in minutes, with a stated need to elevate the foot, has written a restriction that means something.
And by describing the job accurately
Employers describe roles from a job description. Workers know what the role involves. Where those differ, the difference has to be documented at the time, in writing, with specifics: the distance between stations, the hours spent at a bench, the stairs, the ladder, the boot.
Scheduled loss applies here too
Ohio compensates the permanent loss of use of a part, and the foot and toes are part of that. As with hand injuries, it is separate from the rest of the claim and it is routinely never raised.
Questions
Work foot injury questions
General information, not legal advice. Every case turns on its own facts. The only way to know where yours stands is to have someone look at it.
They have offered me a sit-down job. Do I have to take it?
Speak to somebody before you refuse, because declining suitable work can affect compensation. That is not the same as having to accept whatever is offered. If the job is not what it is described as, or is outside your restrictions, that is a different situation and it needs putting on the record properly rather than through an argument on the floor.
I cannot get my work boot on.
Then it needs to be in the medical restrictions rather than treated as your problem to solve. Required footwear that cannot be worn over a swollen or dressed foot is a genuine obstacle to returning, and it is the kind of practical detail that decides whether a return to work is realistic.
My foot healed but my back hurts now.
That is a common consequence of months of walking differently, and it is not automatically covered. Conditions that develop from the original injury generally have to be requested as additional allowances, with medical evidence connecting them. The sooner it is raised the easier that is.
The pain is much worse than the injury should cause.
Tell your doctor in those words and tell us. Persistent, disproportionate pain after a foot or ankle injury is recognized and it needs diagnosing and allowing on the claim rather than being dismissed. Claims where this was never named tend to be the ones that go badly.
I lost toes. Does that change the claim?
Yes, because loss of a part is compensated separately from the rest of the claim. It is worth reviewing before anything is settled or closed.
The appeal deadlines
Ohio workers compensation runs on short deadlines, and they are the reason most appeals are lost rather than the merits.
An order of the Bureau is appealed to the Industrial Commission within 14 days. An order of a District Hearing Officer is appealed to a Staff Hearing Officer within 14 days. An order of a Staff Hearing Officer is appealed to the full Industrial Commission within 14 days.
Where the dispute is about your right to participate in the fund at all, there is a further appeal to the Court of Common Pleas, and that one runs for 60 days.
A dispute about the extent of your disability does not go to the common pleas court. That is challenged only through a mandamus action, which is a different proceeding on a different standard. It is one of the most common misunderstandings we see, and it costs people appeals.
Other Workers' Compensation pages
The rest of this practice area, in case your situation fits one of them better.
All Workers' Compensation
Ohio BWC claims, denials and appeals.
Denied Claims
A BWC denial is the start of the appeal, not the end of the claim.
Workplace Injuries
The injuries we see most, and whether yours is covered.
Workers' Comp Settlements
Settling closes the claim. What to know before you agree a figure.
Back Injuries
The most disputed work injury in Ohio. Reporting and causation.
Shoulder Injuries
Rotator cuff claims, and the overhead restriction that ends jobs.
Knee Injuries
Beating the degenerative argument with what you did before.
Traumatic Brain Injuries
Proving a head injury when the scan came back clear.
Hand Injuries
Two claims live in one hand injury. Most workers make one.
Occupational Diseases
No accident and no date. Causation built from an employment history.
Workplace Death Claims
A claim that belongs to the family, and needs no fault at all.
The three areas we handle
One incident can open more than one claim, and they are handled together here.
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I was injured on the job a while ago, and my employer decided that instead of taking care of me, they would let me go, even though I reported the injury. I contacted Dan Allnutt, of Casper, Casper & Casper, and told him my problem. He and his team went to work and got me the surgery i needed, and the workman's compensation I was due to get back to where I am today. Kim Chupka was an incredible rock, and every time I had a complaint or question, she was always there, with an answer.
James Morinelli
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I have Doug Casper for my workers comp. He has helped me tremendously. I am now also working with Steve for my disability. Steve also helped us so so much when my late husband needed help with his illness. I have recommended this group to anyone who would need a lawyer.
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Casper and Casper has taken care of my family for years my dad was hurt really bad and handicapped the rest of his life they helped him getting everything he needed and now that i was hurt on the job they have taken care of me
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