Nobody goes to work planning to have an injury on a specific day. You should be able to go and do your job and not worry about being injured while you’re there, and while workplace injuries do occur, it can be difficult to know what to do when that happens.
Understanding the steps to take and the support that you might be entitled to is important, because if you don’t understand the support and you get it wrong, then you may end up needing the help of a Social Security disability lawyer.
If you’re injured at work, you need to know what to do so that you can move forward. You want to be able to get on track as quickly as you can, so it’s important to think about the following things if you are injured at work. Taking the right steps will give you the access that you need to claim all of your entitlements.
Get some medical treatment. Whether the injury is urgent or not, you need to seek first aid or the appropriate medical treatment so that you can be assured that you won’t be in pain for too long! If you are off work for a long period of time, you may need to speak to somebody about Social Security so that you can have an income coming in to cover your bills while you recover.
Report the injury to your superior. If you’ve been injured on site or in the office, you need to alert the person that you report to. They have a responsibility to report any accident and record them, and once you have alerted them they have 48 hours to respond and to inform their insurance provider. If you have any pictures or anything like that that you can use as part of your claim, it’s important that you do use them.
Seek the help of a doctor. You then need to go to a doctor to ensure that the extent of your injuries can be determined. They will be able to give you a full assessment of your existing and potential injuries and understand how to care for them and how long it’s going to take you to be back on your feet. You also need to have a personal certificate issued by the doctor if you have a workers compensation claim.
Write everything down. Even if your employer takes a record of everything and your doctor takes a record over everything, you should be doing the same. It might seem like an obvious thing to do, but the details can become confused very quickly. A written record of the train of events can be very useful down the track and from here you can write down exactly what happened and keep that record with you at all times.
Put in a claim for workers compensation. You should be covered by your employer if you are injured as part of your job. If not, then speak to a lawyer and find out what your rights are.
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