A FEW WEEKS before she retired, my wife had a couple of workplace 'accidents', resulting in a bruised ego and a bump on the noggin. Neither incident cost her (or her employer) so much as an aspirin or a bandaid, and she missed not a minute of work.

Yet within a couple of days of each, she received a "Notification of Injury Letter Follow Up - Claimant PIN for WebFile" from the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission. Here's how it reads in part:

Recently, the Commission was notified of a work-related injury where you were listed as the Injured Worker/Claimant. Listed above is your PIN - Personal Identification Number - which enables you to log in to the Commission's WebFile system. WebFile allows you to see your claim, view claim-related documents, and protect your rights by filing a Claim Form. A Notification of Injury has also been sent, containing information required for viewing your claim online. You will need both these documents to access WebFile.

This reads - to me, at least - as almost a demand letter from an ambulance-chaser: You must have had an injury requiring financial compensation. You must file a claim so we can evaluate your loss (otherwise we may no longer have jobs).

What has this world come to when one is expected - no, almost demanded - to file a workers' compensation claim for a non-injury that didn't even require a bandaid, much less time away from work?