Chesterfield County Workers’ Compensation Lawyer: Who Gets Hurt Here, Who Defends the Claims, and Where Yours Gets Decided

Corey R. PollardWorkers’ compensation attorney · Former insurance defense · $100M+ recovered

An order picker at an Amazon fulfillment center in Chester feels his back pop and his shoulder tear as he pulls a tote off a high shelf. He reports it to the on-site clinic, AmCare, and goes home to Ettrick. Within a few days, a Sedgwick adjuster calls and asks for a recorded statement. Now what? I’m a Chesterfield County workers’ compensation lawyer representing injured employees in all industries. My office is on Midlothian Turnpike, between Courthouse Road and Johnston-Willis Hospital, and I used to defend claims like his for employers and insurers. Now I represent the injured worker, helping you prove your claim at a hearing and negotiate a fair workers’ comp settlement.

If you want an overview of how the system works, view my Virginia workers’ compensation guide. But if you want to know what makes a Chesterfield County workers’ comp claim unique, keep reading to learn more: the largest employers, the warehouses along Route 1 and I-95, and the hospitals and panel doctors. It also covers the county and school-division claims and the questions Chester and Midlothian workers often ask me.

Is there a workers’ compensation office in Chesterfield County?

No. The Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission has no office in Chesterfield County. Work injury claims that happen in Chesterfield County, or involve employees and employers based here, are typically handled by a Deputy Commissioner or staff at the Commission’s headquarters in downtown Richmond, about 20 minutes up Route 10, Interstate 95, or the Powhite Parkway from much of the county. The Chesterfield Courthouse complex on Courthouse Road handles the county’s civil and criminal cases and has nothing to do with workers’ compensation.

That means an injured Chesterfield worker and a Richmond worker end up in the same hearing room, before the same eight Deputy Commissioners, under the same rules. I’ve tried cases against several of them before they joined the Commission. How that hearing works, and how a Richmond-area claim moves from filing to award, is on my Richmond page; I won’t repeat it here.

How many workers in Chesterfield County get hurt each year?

According to the Commission’s 2025 Annual Report, Chesterfield County had 4,456 work injuries last year. That is the second-highest total in the Richmond region, behind Henrico (4,948) and ahead of the City of Richmond (4,286). Colonial Heights added 556 and Petersburg 851. Together, the south side of the metro area accounts for close to 6,000 reported injuries a year. Statewide, the figure was 125,882. And the numbers are likely higher, with some employers and employees not reporting injuries or filing claims.

Many of those 4,456 work injuries in Chesterfield County do not become disputed claims. Some are medical-only, with limited treatment, and go unpursued. The ones that reach me are the ones where the employer or its administrator denies the accident, refuses to authorize specific medical treatment, or stops the checks, or where the worker wants help negotiating a settlement. The employers below generate many claims.

Who the big Chesterfield employers are, and who defends their claims

The bigger the employer, the more likely it is to have safety staff, a third-party administrator, and a defense firm familiar with its business before you ever file anything. Here is who you will deal with at the employers I see most often in Chesterfield County.

Whoever the employer is, an adjuster with a third-party administrator such as Sedgwick, Gallagher Bassett, CCMSI, or ESIS, or the insurer will likely handle your claim. I’ve dealt with these companies for years and know what to expect.

Warehouse and distribution injuries along Route 1, I-95, and Meadowville

The corridor between I-95 and Route 1 has a dense cluster of industrial and warehouse jobs and produces many of a particular kind of claim. Injuries to the shoulder, lower back, wrist, or knee from lifting, reaching, twisting with a loaded cart, or falling from a ladder or over debris are common.

Here’s what I often see: The injured worker reports the accident to their supervisor or the on-site clinic, gets ice, takes over-the-counter medication, and maybe goes to urgent care a few times. Then they try to tough it out.

Toughing it out may seem like the smart thing to protect your job and help your employer. But I’ve seen it backfire too many times. Here are three things you can do to avoid that situation:

• Describe what you were doing the exact moment you felt pain, or, if the pain started later, the incident you think caused the problem. You will have difficulty proving a compensable work injury if all you tell the supervisor or doctor is “I lift a lot.” Virginia does not cover repetitive motion injuries.

• Ask for a panel of doctors. The employer has a lot of control over your medical treatment for the work injury, but not total control. Ask for a list of at least three doctors to choose from, other than your employer’s on-site clinic. The law (§ 65.2-603) requires the employer to do so; an unreasonable delay or refusal may allow you to pick your own doctor, then force the employer and insurer to pay for their treatment. From what I’ve seen, warehouse panels in Chesterfield usually include an occupational medicine clinic such as Concentra and two urgent care centers like Patient First. I rarely see an orthopedic group on the initial panel, even though you will likely need specialist care. In my experience, occupational health clinics tend to release injured workers to light duty faster than orthopedic doctors.

• Whether you have to take a light-duty job or can refuse. Amazon and other large employers with high injury rates often have light-duty programs and will offer a light-duty job for various periods, usually up to 90 days. Refusing one that fits your restrictions puts the right to wage-loss benefits at risk, while accepting one outside your restrictions can worsen your injury. If you don’t know what to do, call me. My Amazon warehouse injury page walks through how Amazon handles these claims in Virginia. My forklift accident page covers some of the more severe warehouse accident claims I handle.

Hospital, school, and county workers in Chesterfield

Chippenham, Johnston-Willis, and St. Francis employ thousands of Chesterfield residents. Hospital claims have their own pattern. Usually, it is a back or shoulder injury from turning or lifting a patient, a needlestick, or an assault by a patient in the emergency department or a behavioral health unit. I’ve represented nurses and techs with head injuries and post-concussion syndrome from patient assaults or falls. The hospital systems sometimes steer injured staff to their own occupational health clinics and return-to-work programs. You are entitled to the panel and to a treating doctor who is not your employer’s employee.

Chesterfield County and Chesterfield County Public Schools are self-insured, which means the county is both your employer and, in effect, your insurer. Police officers and firefighters may qualify for Virginia’s heart-disease presumption if they meet the statutory requirements. Certain firefighters and other qualifying public safety employees may also qualify for cancer or respiratory-disease presumptions. Virginia has a separate statute covering PTSD, anxiety, and depressive disorders arising from qualifying line-of-duty events. These claims have specific eligibility requirements, and VRS disability retirement can change how you structure a workers’ compensation settlement.

For teachers, aides, bus drivers, and custodians, the injuries frequently come from breaking up fights, assisting special needs students, falls, and lifting.

Construction along Hull Street, Midlothian Turnpike, Route 288, and Route 10

Driving around, it seems like Chesterfield is building faster than any other locality in the region. Apartments and retail along Hull Street and Midlothian Turnpike, industrial buildings off Route 288 and Route 10, and the Meadowville and Walthall projects keep hundreds of construction workers employed. Many of them work through subcontractors and labor unions. Falls, trench collapses, scaffold and ladder injuries, electrocution, and crane and equipment strikes are the injuries I see.

Two things make construction claims different. First, if your subcontractor has no insurance, the general contractor is usually your statutory employer and owes the benefits. Second, if someone from another company on the site caused the injury, you may have a third-party lawsuit alongside the comp claim. That lawsuit can pay for pain and suffering, which comp never covers. My construction accident hub explains both.

Which Chesterfield doctors treat workers’ comp patients?

The hospitals are Chippenham and Johnston-Willis (HCA) and St. Francis (Bon Secours). Some catastrophic injury victims are taken to VCU.

For follow-up care, the Chesterfield panels I see most often include OrthoVirginia, Virginia Center for Spine and Sports Therapy, Neurosurgical Associates, Concentra, and Patient First. All of them treat workers’ comp patients. Not all of them will write the causation letter, the work restrictions, or provide the impairment rating your claim needs – there’s even deviation inside the bigger practices, like OrthoVirginia. One surgeon can be claimant-friendly, willing to complete questionnaires at no cost; while another may want nothing to do with litigation. My article on why doctors dislike workers’ comp explains the problem. Call me before you pick from the panel, not after. By then it may be too late.

What a Chesterfield workers’ comp claim pays, and what to do first

The types of workers’ comp benefits available in Chesterfield are the same as everywhere else in Virginia. They include temporary total disability at two-thirds of your average weekly wage, capped at $1,507.01 a week for injuries on or after July 1, 2026. They also include temporary partial disability when you earn less because of your restrictions, permanent partial disability for loss of use of a body part, and lifetime medical treatment under an award. You can also negotiate a settlement. My settlements hub explains how those benefits turn into a lump sum.

If your doctor releases you to light-duty work but your employer has no job within your restrictions, you may qualify for temporary total disability benefits while you look for suitable work. You generally have to make a reasonable effort to find work within your restrictions, unless an exception applies. If you return to work earning less than before your injury, temporary partial disability benefits may make up part of the difference.

Why hire a Chesterfield workers’ comp lawyer with an office in the county?

I spent the first part of my career defending employers and insurers in these claims. I know what to expect from the adjuster and defense counsel when evaluating a Chester warehouse back claim. I know which defense attorneys are reasonable and which you have to take to trial. And I know the evidence needed to build a firefighter’s heart claim or a police officer’s PTSD claim. I did that work. Now I use my knowledge for the injured worker.

My office is on Midlothian Turnpike in Chesterfield County, between Courthouse Road and Johnston-Willis Hospital. You can meet me there without driving downtown, and I can meet you there the week before a hearing instead of in the Commission’s lobby that morning. I have recovered more than $100 million for injured workers and disabled clients. Best Lawyers in America has listed me for Workers’ Compensation Law, Claimants, every year from 2020 through 2026, and Super Lawyers named me a Rising Star from 2016 through 2025. You pay nothing up front. The Commission reviews every attorney’s fee, and I am paid only if you recover benefits or negotiate a settlement.

Call me today to get started: 804-251-1620.

About the authorCorey Pollard is a Virginia workers’ compensation and Social Security Disability attorney in Richmond. Best Lawyers in America® (2020–2026), $100M+ recovered, and a former insurance defense lawyer — which is the part that matters.