Work Injury: How to File a Claim
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Work Injury: How to File a Claim
Experiencing an accident at work is often an uncomfortable and confusing time. In addition to injuries, you may be worried about your current situation and have a hard time finding reliable information.
In this article, we aim to clear up the confusion and give you a clear step-by-step guide on what to do after an injury or accident on the job.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
What are my employer’s responsibilities?
Under health and safety laws, every employer is responsible for providing a safe working environment for its employees. If the employer fails to perform his duties, he is liable to be sued, usually by the Health and Safety Administration or local government authority.
In the event of an accident you should:
- If necessary, get medical support from your GP or hospital;
- Report your injury from an accident.
When can I file a claim for an accident at work?
If you are injured because you did not follow health and safety guidelines, you may be eligible for a workers’ compensation claim. For example, if you cause an accident and your injury is aggravated by a defective piece of equipment, you can file a claim.
You can also file a claim if a workplace accident made a current condition or injury worse. At this point, it is your employer’s responsibility to keep your job safe.
In practice, employers are obliged to:
- Provide employees with suitable work and personal protective equipment;
- ensure that personnel are properly trained;
- conducting regular risk assessments;
- manage business activities to reduce health and safety risks;
- Provide a safe system of work for the team.
File a claim with your employer: what’s next?
If you are injured in an accident at work, it may be that you are worried about creating friction at work, or that you will lose your job if you continue to file a personal injury claim with your employer.
Usually, these types of claims are covered by the company’s insurance policy, and since accidents do happen, all responsible employers must ensure they are in the correct financial position to consider all possible scenarios.
However, if you do find yourself at risk of losing your job or being persecuted for filing a valid industrial injury claim, don’t hesitate to seek employment law advice.
Steps you must follow after an accident
1. Focus on your injury
Although your injury may seem minor at first, you should be immediately treated by first responders in the workplace. In the worst case, even a seemingly minor injury can become a lifelong disease without adequate treatment. This means that you should have your injury fully evaluated by a reliable, qualified doctor.
When it is safe to do so, you may consider going to the nearest hospital. But remember – if you have a head injury, you may not be able to make the most informed decisions. Let someone with enough medical experience decide if you should move. In this pot, you should be completely focused on your health.
2. Reporting an Incident
If you are alone in the warehouse when the accident occurs, make sure everyone is aware of the accident. This is a key aspect if you later decide to file a personal injury claim or investigate.
In some cases, an employer can easily influence a more suggestive employee to deny that an accident occurred. This may not be your case, but the simple truth is that if you can gather indisputable evidence that your injury occurred, your insurance company manager will not be able to deny that it happened.
More importantly, report the accident to your colleagues and hope they don’t hurt themselves like you did.
Reporting the incident to your manager is necessary as he or she is obliged to report the incident to the Health and Safety Executive (as the case may be).
If you fail to report an incident properly, you may be in violation of the employee handbook/procedure. Therefore, you should report the accident to your colleagues and managers as soon as possible.
3. Gather photo and video evidence
This is a very important step if you want to file a claim for compensation. If you’ve been involved in an accident at work and feel the need to defend yourself, there’s no better way than to gather evidence to support your case.
After an accident, you should act as your own investigator. As long as you don’t get penalized for using your phone, you should take videos and photos of the accident location. Recent evidence about the situation and location will be considered invaluable and will ensure your employer is not trying to “fix” the accident site to stop your claim.
Photo by cottonbro from Pexels
4. Keep a current list of symptoms
It is important to note down all symptoms, whether on a laptop or smartphone. You should do this because doctors and nurses often do not fully document all patients’ symptoms. So even if you have multiple injuries at the time of the accident, medical professionals will only focus on what they consider to be the most serious at the time.
However, over time, those little wounds can easily roll over to their heads. They may appear minor in the first few weeks after an accident, but they can turn into long-term, debilitating conditions – potentially the most serious injuries in claims.
If your doctor didn’t record the minor injury at the time of the accident, the person responsible for writing the medical report months or years later will find it difficult to attribute the injury to your claim.
Keeping a video or written diary of your symptoms will help you support the impact of your accident in court, given that memories can fade over time.
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