Workplace Accidents

Posted on Wednesday, May 4th, 2011

If you are unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident at work, which was not your fault and you suffer from a workplace injury, you may be able to make a personal injury claim for compensation.

If you are injured at work, in most cases you are entitled to workers’ compensation. The type of compensation you are entitled to will depend on the nature of your injury, and whether you are covered under workers’ compensation.

As with all accident compensation claims, it will be necessary to prove that your injury, illness or disease was caused by the negligence of another party. It is important to consult with an experienced personal injury law firm who will conduct an investigation, compile evidence to support your claim and present it to third party insurers.

Every personal injury claim is very different and while some are settled within a matter of months, others can take years. Most claims for workplace accidents and workplace injuries are settled out of Court; however, some will need to go trial in order for you to receive fair compensation.

For over 30 years the trial attorneys at Coker, Schickel, Sorenson, Posgay & Iracki have successfully handled claims for serious personal injury and built a strong record of success in getting clients the compensation they need and deserve. In some cases this in the form of a fair settlement. When this option does not succeed, we then activate our well-known reputation and skills for taking cases to Court. The combined experience, commitment and resources of the firm are all vigorously applied at trial to obtain results that are favorable to our client. Our attorneys have successfully dealt with a wide range of workplace accident and workplace injury claims ranging from lacerations, burns and soft tissue damage to catastrophic injuries such as brain injuries or spinal injuries and even fatal injuries.

Steps To Take If You Have Been Injured In A Workplace Accident

1. Find out if your employer is required to have workers’ compensation insurance. In most states, almost all employers are. This means if you work for someone who has 4 or more employees (and you are not an independent contractor), you will get your work injury compensation through the workers’ compensation system.
2. Make sure your injury is covered by workers’ compensation. If you were injured in the course of your employment while doing something job related you are entitled to work injury compensation. This is true in some cases even if you weren’t physically at the office, as long as you were somewhere you were supposed to be. It’s also true if you were injured because you were negligent, as long as you didn’t so something on purpose to get hurt and you weren’t intoxicated or on drugs. Negligence does not preclude a work injury claim, and your employer did not have to do something negligent in order for you to be entitled to work injury compensation.
3. Follow all the required steps for a work accident claim. This means you must notify your employer or your injury and your intent to seek work injury compensation as soon as you can after your injury. This also means going to a doctor, sometimes even one recommended by your employer. You must do all these steps in order to file a work accident claim and get work injury compensation. If you fail to inform your employeror go to a doctor, you may lose your right to file a work accident claim and be unable to get work injury compensation.