Hand and wrist injuries occupy an awkward place in the claims world. They rarely involve a hospital stay, so an adjuster files them as minor, while the person living with one cannot grip a tool, hold a steering wheel through a shift or type for a full day.
For a tradesperson, a surgeon, a stylist, a mechanic or a musician, a hand injury can end the work entirely. The claim has to be built around that, not around the length of the hospital admission.
Hand and wrist injuries we handle
- Fractures of the wrist, metacarpals and fingers, including those needing plates, pins or fusion
- Tendon and ligament injuries, including flexor and extensor tendon lacerations, which often need staged surgery and months of therapy
- Crush and [degloving injuries](/personal-injury-lawyer/amputation-lawyer/) from machinery, rollers and conveyors
- Amputation of fingers or thumb, where the thumb carries a disproportionate share of hand function
- [Nerve injuries](/personal-injury-lawyer/nerve-damage-lawyer/), including ulnar and median damage and CRPS following a wrist fracture
- Burns and chemical injuries, which scar and contract
- Repetitive strain and carpal tunnel arising from work, which usually runs through workers' compensation
Where these injuries come from
- Machinery at work, particularly with missing guards or during clearing and maintenance
- Falls, where the instinct to catch yourself puts the whole body weight through the wrist
- Collisions, from bracing against the wheel or dashboard
- Doors and gates, including car doors, and lifts and escalators where a hand is caught
- Glass and blade injuries in kitchens, retail and construction
- Dog bites, where hands are the most commonly bitten adult body part
Why these claims get undervalued
Three things drive it, and each has an answer:
- Short treatment looks like minor injury. A tendon repair is an outpatient procedure followed by months of hand therapy, and the therapy record is what shows the real burden.
- Loss of function is not obvious in a medical note. Grip strength measurements, range of motion and a functional capacity evaluation turn "sore hand" into evidence.
- The work consequence is invisible unless documented. What you could do before, what you cannot do now, and what that costs over a career.
Permanent partial impairment ratings matter here more than in most claims, because a modest-sounding percentage of hand function can represent a large share of someone's livelihood.
If it happened at work
Most serious hand injuries in Maryland happen on the job. That usually means a workers' compensation claim, which pays regardless of fault but does not pay for pain and suffering.
Where someone other than your employer contributed, a machine manufacturer, a contractor on site or a property owner, there may be a separate third-party claim that is not limited in the same way. Both can run at once, and the second is often missed because the first is the one HR tells you to file.
