You were hurt at work. Maybe it was witnessed. Maybe it was not witnessed. Either way, all injured workers have the first responsibility – to report the injury to a supervisor at work. Telling a coworker will not suffice. Assuming your boss knows does not constitute providing notice of your injury. It is the injured worker’s responsibility to make sure the Employer knows he or she sustained an injury.
Well, then, what are the Employer’s responsibilities? These come into play as soon as an injured worker reports the injury. After the injured has reported the injury, it is the Employer’s responsibility to report the injury to their workers’ compensation insurance carrier. It is not the responsibility of the injured worker to contact the insurance carrier. Once the injured worker has reported the injury to his or her Employer, the injured worker’s responsibility ends.
Injured workers should be wary of only reporting an injury verbally. Having written documentation of an injury occurring is usually best practice. If the Employer does not document it immediately in a form such as an injury report or the injured worker reports the injury verbally and does not follow up in writing (ie text, email, etc.) confirming that an injury occurred and it was reported to the Employer, there could be an issue in the future. If the injured worker has to come out of work or needs medical treatment but the insurance carrier has no notice of an injury and there is no documentation that an injury was reported, the injured worker will be in a bad spot. If there is no documentation, and the Employer challenged the injury saying it was never reported, it will become a legal battle that a Judge must decide. It is best to avoid this entirely. Document, document, document.
If a few days have passed since reporting the injury to the Employer and the injured worker has not heard from the insurance company, it may be prudent to check in with the Employer as to the status of the claim. Even more prudent would be to contact a lawyer. Our office is open 24/7 waiting to take your call.
If you have more questions, you can check out our video or contact the firm to speak directly with a lawyer today.
