Minnesota work comp covers the obvious specific injuries that everybody knows when it happens to them. When you have a back injury ’cause you’re bending over to pick up a box from a pallet in a warehouse, for example, those specific injuries are obviously covered. And all different orthopedic conditions are also covered from those types of specific events.

What is less known is that repetitive stress injuries called Gillette injuries, just like the razor, are covered as well, and they’ve been covered here in Minnesota for years. And Gillette injuries are basically the kind of injury that occurs when you have gradual, heavy work activities to a specific body part that wears a joint out and causes disability or need for medical care and treatment.

And we have many, many Gillette injury claims and almost as many Gillette injury claims as specific injury claims because typically employers don’t � they can’t see, feel, touch, and smell those types of injuries, they’re a little more subtle so they will typically send a report of injury to the insurance company, which will deny the claim. And then an injured worker has to go out and prove that claim up through medical evidence, opinions from doctors, and that’s where we come in to help obtain those opinions and establish those claims.

So Gillette injuries are a big part of the Minnesota work comp landscape, specific injuries of all different types, orthopedic injuries and others, chemical exposures, occupational illnesses from any toxins or exposure type cases environmentally are covered. And mental health injures including post-traumatic stress disorder have recently been added to the menu.