One question we get frequently is: I got hurt at work now what do I do or what do I do first?
One of the most important aspects of workers compensation is that you have 45 days to let your employer know that you were injured as a result of a work-related accident.
That’s speaking quite generally, there are certain things that might skew that time period a little bit but it is probably the firmest timeline that we have in workers compensation so that once you know you have a work-related injury, you have an obligation to let your employer know that this injury was as a result of work.
So what that means is that you must either tell a supervisor or somebody in human resources that you have an injury. And what they should do, what they are obligated to do is fill out what is called a first report of injury and thus a form that you fill out and that they also fill out that basically talks about how you were injured.
Getting that first report of injury is important so that there is documentation that you were injured even if you don’t really decide to do anything about it within the workers compensation system.
It is important to document it and the reason it is important to document it is that there is another important timeline which is three years from the date of injury so that you could still do something with this work injury even if months and months have passed and you are already back at work.
So these dates are very important for workers compensations which is what it is important that as soon as you get injured, to file a first report of injury and let your employer know that you have been injured and give them what the restrictions that you may have had.
And also the other thing that’s important is that you seek medical treatment.
One of the bigger complications that we have in workers compensation is when there is a gap between an injury and treatment so it is important that if you are hurt at work that you receive treatment and then it is consistent treatment and that there aren’t any gaps in treatment and that you advise your treatment provider how you got injured and relate it back to the work incident so that’s it’s annotated properly so that we don’t have any complications if we do pursue workers compensation case.
So thank you for watching this again my name is Carolina Schottland with Zanck, Coen, Wright and Saladin and if you would like to contact me directly the office phone number is 815-459-8800. Also feel free to email me. I am excellent by email and hope to respond to all questions within a timely manner. So my email address is [email protected].
I have been an attorney for over 12 years and really enjoy practicing workers compensation law and really look forward to helping out with your case.