A 38-year-old packing worker used her hands and arms the same way, over and over, every shift. The damage didn’t come from one accident — it built up over years until her body gave out. Her claim ended in justice.
When the Injury Builds Over Time
Repetitive-trauma claims are among the hardest to win. Because they don’t stem from a single accident, insurers routinely question whether the injury is really work-related. Yet repetitive stress is one of the most common and disabling ways that workers in packing, assembly, and food-processing jobs get hurt. This worker needed a firm that would prove a cumulative injury with the same force as any sudden accident.
Inside the Workplace Injury
The client worked through a temporary staffing agency at a food and nut packing store in Elgin, in the Chicago area. Her job was repetitive by nature — moving, packing, and lifting, with her hands and arms under constant strain. Over time, that repeated stress injured her right elbow, shoulder, and wrist. It was not a fall or a one-day event; it was a repetitive-trauma injury that developed gradually until it could no longer be ignored.
The Fight Over a Cumulative Injury
In workers’ compensation, a repetitive-stress injury can be contested precisely because there is no single dramatic accident to point to. Meanwhile, the client’s condition was serious enough to require surgery — ultimately hand and thumb surgery as well as right elbow surgery. Supporting two children, she faced pain, operations, and uncertainty all at once, while the nature of her injury gave the insurer an opening to dispute it.
Turning Strategy Into Justice
Jack Epstein, with 30 years of experience in the Illinois legal market, personally oversaw the case. Our legal team filed the claim with the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission and built the record around how repetitive work damaged her arm and the surgeries it required. We made clear that a cumulative, work-related injury is just as compensable as any single accident. The client paid nothing until we won the case.
A Settlement That Recognized the Injury
The case resolved in early 2026 with a $65,000 settlement. The agreement recognized that her repetitive-trauma injury was real, serious, and deserving of compensation like any other work injury — and it accounted for the multiple surgeries she underwent.
Repetitive-stress injuries to the hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders are widespread among workers in packing and light-industrial jobs, and they are frequently downplayed by insurers. Documenting the link between the repetitive work and the medical treatment — including surgery — is what turns a contested cumulative-trauma claim into a fair recovery. Workers should know these injuries count.
For staffing-agency workers, the stakes can be even higher, since responsibility is sometimes passed between the agency and the business where the work is performed. That should never leave an injured worker without a remedy. Illinois law protects temporary and placed workers the same as any direct employee, and this outcome reflects that principle in practice.
No single accident — just years of the same motion, and two surgeries to prove it. A repetitive-trauma injury is still a real injury, and it earned a $65,000 recovery.
If repeated motions at work have injured your hands, arms, shoulders, or back, our Illinois legal team can help — repetitive-trauma injuries are compensable too. Contact us today for a free consultation.
