Steps To Take When You're Injured On Your Employer's Property

Having a work-related injury may be unexpected if you're working a standard office job. But claims such as slip and fall injuries are actually fairly standard in the workplace. Here are some steps for handling a situation where you get injured on your employer's property.

Alert Your Employer

The first thing to do is let your employer know what happened right away. This creates a record of the time and place of your injury. Write down details about your injury, such as the potential causes, names of witnesses, and any other conditions you notice.

Get a Medical Evaluation

You may need to stop working until you are able to get a medical evaluation for your injury. Get this right away so that you can document the initial severity of your injury; it will be important to assess whether the injury improves or gets worse as time goes on.

Your doctor may initially give you an evaluation based on whether you should return to work or not. There are three categories of diagnoses for workplace injuries. The first is a partial, temporary disability; this means that you should not return to work for a set period of time, and then your doctor will reevaluate your fitness to attend work. Another option is a partial permanent disability; this is when the doctor thinks that you will not be able to go back to your particular job but you could potentially do another line of work. The final category would be a full permanent disability. If your doctor assess this kind of injury category, it may mean that you are unable to return to work at all.

Go Through the Process of Filing a Workers Compensation Claim

Your employer should guide you through their company's workers compensation process. It will include seeing an insurance-approved physician, filing paperwork on a timely basis, and following up with any additional information needed.

Decide When to Hire a Lawyer

In some cases, a lawyer may not be needed. Since workers compensation claims are regulated by law, a basic claim may go through without a hitch. But when the injury is more severe, hiring a workers compensation attorney in your area is a great idea. There are some grey areas in terms of what kind of disability is assessed, how much medical care is paid for by your employer, and how the Social Security Administration determines that you have done your due diligence in getting medical treatments and attempting to find alternate work assignments.

For more information, contact local professionals like The Law Offices Of Martin Von Mizener.