Looking To Receive Workers Comp? How Improve Your Odds Of Receiving Compensation
If you become injured while working for your employer, know that your work-related injuries will be covered thanks to workers compensation. It's designed to give you the compensation you need to cover your medical bills, lost wages due to staying home during recovery, and any other costs out of your own pocket until you're fully recovered. Be sure to follow these tips to ensure that you will receive your workers comp benefits.
Report The Injury
You'll need to formally report the injury to your employer soon after it happens. Each state has its own requirements over how long you have to make the report, but it's usually around a month. Once notified, your employer will need to complete some paperwork for you to receive workers comp benefits.
It's a good idea to contact your employer after an injury to verify all paperwork has been filed on their end. Without their paperwork, it's possible that your claim will be denied and cause a big delay in receiving your compensation
Thoroughly Describe The Incident
A common issue behind the denial of workers comp claims is that the injury is not described thoroughly in the submitted paperwork after the accident. No detail is too small when reporting the details of your injury, since you'll need to go into depth about how you were injured, what you were doing before the injury, as well as at the time it happened, and how you handled the situation after. You can even give details about the medical assistance you received and your initial treatments.
Find Witnesses
Was there anybody around at the time of the incident that witnessed what happened? If so, you'll want to get a written statement from them to describe what happened. Having a neutral party confirm the details of your accident can help confirm that it was not your fault and should be eligible for workers comp
Understand The Local Workers Comp Laws
Be sure that you have an understanding about how your state's workers comp laws work. There are key differences that you need to know, such as the timeline you must follow for submitting paperwork, medical treatments that aren't covered, the process of making appeals, and protocol for returning to work
If you want to ensure that you are taking all the right steps to receive the maximum amount of compensation possible, you should work with a local lawyer that specializes in workers compensation cases.
