No one plans to be hurt at work. These are things you should know to avoid BEFORE you are hurt at work. These are very common mistakes we have seen over the years committed by injured workers after experiencing a work injury.
First mistake is assuming your employer knows you were hurt on the job. You cannot assume your supervisor or boss knows if you did not explicitly inform them of your injury. In Pennsylvania, it is required for the injured worker to inform a supervisor that they were injured on the job. If you cannot say where, when, and how you notified your supervisor of your injury, you have not satisfied putting your employer on notice of your work injury.
Second mistake is not documenting that you reported the injury. You can verbally report an injury, but if you do not document reporting it, your employer may contest that you provided notice at a later date. There are a few different ways to document reporting a work injury to your employer. You can send a text or an email confirming that you reported a work injury. You can write an injury report and make sure to keep a copy for yourself. Whatever way you document, you will want to keep a copy of the documentation for yourself.
Third mistake is not getting medical treatment as close to the injury as possible. If your case gets before a judge, the judge will want to see if you went for medical treatment following your injury and how soon after. The sooner, the better for your case.
Fourth mistake is ignoring the workers’ compensation insurance company. This may differ in other areas of the law, but for workers’ comp, it is best to speak with the insurance company when they are calling to ask questions about your injury. If the insurance carrier cannot get information about the injury, it will be hard for them to accept it and pick up liability.
Fifth mistake is failing to show up for work after your injury. It is a mistake to assume that because you had a work injury, you just do not need to show up for work. It is important to stay in contact with your employer following an injury. There may be times where failure to show up for work despite suffering an injury results in job abandonment. This may impact your entitlement to workers’ compensation.
If you have more questions, you can check out our video or contact the firm to speak directly with a lawyer today.
