I Got Hurt at Work. What Should I Do?
What To Do After a Workplace Injury
In Virginia, a workers compensation claim will provide medical care and wage replacement benefits to anyone who suffers a workplace injury. However, even if you’ve been hurt at work, your actions right after an accident can have a significant impact on your claim. Taking the following steps after a workplace injury or work related injury diagnosis will help your workers’ compensation lawyer protect your interests later.
Workplace Injuries
If you are injured on the job in Virginia, make certain to follow the steps below to protect your workers compensation claim:
- Give Notice to Your Employer Immediately
If you’ve been hurt at work, as soon as you are able, notify your employer about your workplace injury. Whenever possible, you should give written notice to either your supervisor immediately after the injury (or someone else in a supervisory position).
If your employer doesn’t receive notice of your work related injuries, this may impair your workers compensation claim. Failure to give notice to your employer within 30 days from the date of your accident (or 60 days from the date of the diagnosis of your occupational disease) may affect your right to workers compensation claim benefits.
- Seek Medical Treatment
Even if your workplace injuries don’t appear very serious, see a doctor immediately after the accident. Seeking medical treatment quickly after sustaining work related injuries will enable you to have your injuries documented in your medical records, and you will be able to seek medical care for your on the job injury.
Once your employer has notice of your on the job injury and your workers compensation claim is filed, it’s important to make all your doctors appointments and follow their recommended treatment program. Attending physical therapy appointments and seeking other medical attention ordered by your treating doctor will show that you’re actively trying to reach maximum medical improvement.
- Cooperate With Vocational Rehabilitation
An injured workers employer may be required to provide vocational rehabilitation services to help injured employees return to work that they can perform within their work restrictions. Vocational services offered by the employer can include vocational evaluation, job placement, and training.
If an injured employee has been released to perform light work, the insurance carrier may try to place the employee in a light duty position. If an injured worker is seriously injured, rehabilitation training may be attempted to teach the injury victim to do some other type of work.
Workers compensation laws require that the injured employee cooperate with vocational rehabilitation or risk hurting their workers compensation claim.
- Talk to a Workers’ Compensation Lawyer
The workers compensation process is extremely complex with extensive paperwork and multiple deadlines. Having a workers compensation lawyer to guide you through the process, and protect your legal rights will help prevent problems with the claims process. Having an attorney to fight the workers compensation insurance company for you will protect your workers comp claim from the pitfalls of the Virginia workers compensation system.
Workers Compensation Claim
Dealing with workplace injuries and a Virginia workers compensation claim can be complex and confusing. Your employer may want to send you to certain doctors, while your treating physician may want you to seek other medical treatment with another provider. The workers comp insurance company may cut off your benefits or delay approval of medical treatment. There is much that can go wrong in a Virginia workers compensation claim. If you’ve been injured on the job, at the very least, you should speak with an attorney experienced in handling Virginia workers compensation claims to protect your rights.
Your Virginia Workers’ Compensation Attorneys Team
If you’ve been involved in a workplace accident, our workers’ comp team at the Ritchie Law Firm is happy to sit down with you and talk with you to see if your workers’ compensation benefits claim needs to have an attorney involved. It doesn’t cost anything to talk with us about your permanent disability claim. We have a wealth of information and resources available to us, and we’re always happy to share. Give us a call today at 800-277-6124 for your NO STRINGS ATTACHED conversation with our workers’ compensation lawyers.
We handle Virginia Workers’ Compensation cases out of our offices in Harrisonburg, Winchester, Charlottesville, and Staunton, Va. Or, if you just want to test the waters first, get some more information by filling out the form below. We look forward to working with you.
