Tell your supervisor immediately

The most important thing you should do if you are injured at work is tell your supervisor immediately. If circumstances prevent you from immediately telling your supervisor, do so at the first available opportunity.  Report all injures promptly.  Sometimes injuries that initially appear insignificant get worse overtime, or are worse than you know.

Immediately request a Claim Form

Your employer is required to give you a claim form within one working day after learning of your injury.  If you are not given one, ask your supervisor for one.

It is essential that you complete a claim form and that your employer immediately send it to their workers’ compensation insurance carrier.  The sooner this is done the better.  Do it today!

Keep detailed records of when you spoke to your supervisor and when you completed the claim form.  Request a copy of the claim form and the name, address, and phone number of the workers’ compensation carrier.  You should also mail the completed claim form to the workers’ compensation insurance company by certified mail in case your employer does not.

What do you do if your employer refuses to give you a claim form?

Unfortunately, many employers ignore the law.  Employees are often fired in an attempt to avoid dealing with their workers’ compensation claims.  Or, some employers refuse to give their injured employees the required claim form and instruct the employee to use their health insurance and lie to the doctors about where they were injured.  Other employers simply avoid workers’ compensation by offering to pay for your medical treatment.

Do not accept any of these actions. There is a great potential that going along with any of these schemes will be used against you if and when your claim is contested.  Simply, tell your employer that you would like a claim form so that you can do things the proper way.

Try to determine the name of the insurance company yourself.  Your employer is required to post several posters at your job site related to workers’ compensation.  The name of their insurance company should be on these posters.  You may know someone else at work that was injured that might be able to give you the insurance information.

You should contact your local Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and go meet with an Information and Assistance Officer who can help you file a claim.  Finally, call an attorney.

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