The most careful of employees can find themselves in a dangerous situation if other workers or an employer is not exercising caution as well. To this end, anyone can be seriously injured while on-the-job, and so everyone should know how to act after being in a work accident. If you do not know what to do, your chances of collecting fair and total workers’ compensation benefits could be jeopardized.
Here’s five simplified steps to remember to make your workers’ compensation claim as strong as possible:
- Seek medical attention: The most important thing is your health. Get appropriate medical attention immediately. If there is any reason to believe that your injuries are serious, you should not refuse the help of emergency responders and should expect to be hospitalized. Even when you believe your injuries are minor, you cannot be certain without a professional diagnosis, so schedule a visit to your doctor as soon as you can.
- Report your injury: You must tell your employer about your injury as soon as you have the opportunity to do so. In some instances, you can tell them right after your accident while you await medical attention, assuming it does not further your injuries. If able, a coworker can also get your supervisor, boss, or employer and bring them to you. Even if you are the only one to blame for your accident and injury, you should never hesitate to tell your employer about it.
- Compile your evidence: After you have received treatment for your injury and notified your employer about your accident, you can start thinking about the evidence you might be able to use to prove your injury is work-related. Write down your own account, get those from other employees there, obtain copies of security footage, and so on. Remember that workers’ compensation claims do not rely entirely on liability, meaning you can still get full benefits if you are responsible for what happened.
- Follow-up: Do whatever your doctor tells you in terms of treatments for your work injury. Failure to follow physician orders can drastically reduce the workers’ compensation you earn. You may also want to ask your employer about the injury report he or she must file with the company’s insurer. Employers have just five days to file this report, and insurance companies have just 14 days to respond with affirmation or denial of your claim.
- Get legal help: The moment you are unsure about what to do, or the second your employer or the insurance company resists your claim, you should start looking for legal help. In many workers’ compensation cases, it is not unusual for the injured worker to retain a lawyer’s services right after the accident.
Percy Law Group, PC is a trusted workers’ compensation law firm in Bristol County, Massachusetts. If you have been hurt while completing a work-related duty, including car accidents that occur while on the job, you can rely on our dedicated team with 20+ years of total legal experience to manage your claim. To learn more about our services, you can review our recent case results or contact us to schedule a free consultation.