Immediately after you're hurt on the job or have been diagnosed with an illness related to your employment, you need to notify your employer. If you fail to do this in a timely manner, you will give up the right to recover compensation. You need to notify your employer immediately, and if they request that you attend a specific doctor's office to be evaluated, you need to do so.
Employers have a legal responsibility to keep their workplace hazard free and safe. Unfortunately, injuries continue to occur in a broad range of industries in many different states, and far too many people suffer catastrophic injuries or even fatalities on the job. A worker who is injured or develops an illness because of exposure at work typically files a workers’ compensation claim to get benefits. The workers’ compensation program is paid for through insurance with your employer, and this covers your benefits and medical treatments if you were hurt in a legitimate work-related accident.
However, there are some cases where you may step outside of the workers’ compensation claim process to instead sue your employer as an injured worker. Determining the best course of action for your individual case will depend heavily on the facts of the case, and knowledgeable workers’ compensation lawyers at Morgan & Morgan can fight for you at every step of the process.
If you have already submitted a claim and were denied for benefits, it is essential that you communicate with a workers’ comp lawyer immediately. It is devastating to get hurt on the job, especially if it was not your fault and your employer was responsible for an unsafe work environment. In those circumstances, it is vital that you know the full scope of your rights and legal responsibilities.
In most cases, you may be required to recover compensation through your workers’ comp policy. Recovering compensation through workers’ comp may be straightforward and may provide additional benefits if you sustain a disabling injury. There are other circumstances, however, where you may need to contact a workers’ compensation lawyer to assist you with a denied claim or other problems with the workers’ compensation insurance company.
In a work-related accident, an employee typically does not have the legal responsibility to prove fault, instead, it is your job to show that the injury was work-related and occurred within the scope of your employment duties and tasks. Workers’ compensation gives workers the benefits they need without proving liability and fault, but it also protects employers from being sued by those workers. Because you may be required to go through the workers’ compensation system, you typically are unable to sue an employer for an injury. This means that you cannot receive compensation for elements that may be provided through personal injury lawsuits, such as mental anguish, pain and suffering, and any other form of non-economic damages. There are some exceptions, however, in which the answer to, "Can you sue your employer for a work injury?", is yes.