If you sustain an injury at work, or on your way to or from work, you may be entitled to a worker’s compensation claim. Such compensation can help you to pay for medical bills and provide financial assistance that you so much need during your time off. If you have sustained an injury at work, here are five important things you should know about a worker’s compensation claim. 

Report the injury to your employer immediately

If it is not an emergency, the first thing you should do after you get injured at work is to report the injury to your employer. If your injury requires immediate medical attention, be sure to notify your employer as soon as possible after you have been attended to by your doctor. If you delay notifying your employer of your injury, you may lose your right to collect your worker’s compensation claim. You must provide notice of your injury before the deadline set by your state expires. A simple text message or email is enough to give notice of your injury. 

Your employer may be required to fill an Incident Report Form. You should confirm that the details on the Incident Report Form are accurate before signing it. 

Provide accurate details to your doctor

When reporting your workplace injury to your doctor, take that opportunity to give as many details as possible. Your doctor will keep a record of how the injury occurred and how it affected you. If you require time off, your doctor will issue you a WorkCover certificate that indicates the extent of your injury and ability to get back to work. 

Don’t make any statements

You have no obligation to make a statement to your employer or a WorkCover investigator. Respectfully decline invitations to make statements. Investigators may act clever and ask select questions and transcribe your answers to statements that don’t highlight the whole situation accurately. If in doubt, get legal advice from a reputable compensation attorney such as Williams and Kamb. 

You don’t have to prove fault of the employer

Contrary to what a lot of people believe, you don’t have to prove fault of your employer to get compensation. Worker compensation is considered a no fault system in the United States. In addition, the compensation amount is not affected by your carelessness in doing the job. However, you may not get compensation if you were under the influence of alcohol or drugs when the injury happened. If that is the case, you should consider consulting a compensation attorney before filing a claim.

Seek legal advice if your claim is rejected 

In case your claim is rejected, take steps to dispute the decision. First, you should seek the help of conciliation service. If the dispute is not resolved, you can go to court. It is important that you consult a compensation attorney about the merits of your case rather than giving up because you are afraid of the legal costs of challenging the rejection of your claim. 

Endnote

Sustaining an injury at work can have far-reaching consequences. Apart from the physical pain, a workplace injury can result in financial anguish. A worker’s compensation covers your wages for the time you won’t be able to work as well as medical bills.