No matter how well your employer takes care of things to prevent accidents; injuries and accidents do happen. If you are injured at work, there are steps that you need to take in order to receive full benefits. These steps were developed by a work injury attorney who has several years of experience working with injured workers.
It is important that you report your injury to your manager right away, no matter how severe you think the injury may or may not be. Your employer will then give you an employee's claim for workers compensation benefits form to complete.
You will need to complete the employee part of the form and hand it back to your supervisor right away to avoid any delay in your benefits. Be certain to tell your manager what area of the body you believe was affected by the injury.
It is important to retain a copy of the form. Make sure that you ask your employer to fill out and give you back a copy of the claim paperwork with their section completed. By law, your supervisor has twenty-four hours to get the completed form back to you.
You need to tell your supervisor right away if you feel you require medical attention. If you have completed a" Personal Physician Pre-Designation Form" prior to the injury occurring, you have the right to go see your own doctor right away if needed. If you didn't file this form, you can tell your employer to send you to see a doctor right away. Usually the doctor your employer sends you to is one of their choosing. If you need medical care, treatment has to be provided within twenty-four hours of filing your claim.
If you are seeking treatment, you need to describe to the doctor exactly how your injury happened as well as what body parts were affected from the injury. It is important to go to all assigned medical appointments and to retain copies of every medical receipts and doctors notes that tell you that you cannot work.
It is important to retain all copies of any documents that you receive via your employer as well as the insurance company regarding your injury. Records that you want to retain include the dates of any medical treatments, copies for anything that is related that you pay yourself as well as prescription costs and all round-trip mileage for any medical appointments.
It is crucial that you write down all facts that you can remember about the injury that you received at work. You could have a civil lawsuit in addition to your worker's compensation claim. In this case, you may want to hire a work injury attorney to assist you with your lawsuit. It is important, that you go over all of the facts that occurred in reference to your injury with a work injury attorney that is trained in work injury cases.
