Suffering an injury at work is never much fun. It can be disastrous for you as well as your family if they rely on your income. Here’s what to do if it happens to you.
Recover
The first thing you need to do when you suffer an injury at work is recover. That might sound like a pretty obvious thing to point out, but it’s important to remember nonetheless. You can’t take the next steps and be effective at finding compensation if you are not in good health. So, do exactly what the doctor tells you to do and don’t rush your body back into action too soon.
You might be able to start proceedings while you recover from home, but you should consult your doctor before going ahead with this. If you do decide to do that, allow your attorney do most of the work for you. They’re the ones with the expertise and knowledge anyway. So, you’ll be able to put your feet up and recover while they start to mount the case against your employer if that’s what you want to do.
Make a Complaint
If the company you work for has an official complaints procedure, you should take advantage of this. Tell them exactly what happened to you and ask them for an explanation and an apology. This might be all you want. If you’re not seriously injured, and you can get back to work, an apology might suffice.
However, if you’re looking for compensation, you might not get what you’re looking for. These complaints procedures usually take forever to get through. And then when you finally reach the end of the process, you’re unlikely to get more than an apology for your employer. So, if you want to get compensation for what happened, read on.
Pursue Compensation
There are lots of different options open to you when you decide to pursue a claim for compensation. Firstly, you can make a government claim if the issue is related to asbestos, or the state played a part in the injury you sustained. Or you could use a claims assessor to see if you can get compensation. If you fail to make any progress on getting compensation directly from your employer, it might be time to move onto the option of taking legal action against them.
This is not a step that anyone wants to have to take, but sometimes it’s the only option available to you. If you have no income, and you need to pay the bills and provide for your family, compensation will be essential. If you decide to go down this route, you’ll need help from a specialist injury attorney. They’ll be able to help you put your case together and make sure you win the compensation you’re entitled to.
As soon as you’ve recovered and realised that your efforts to get compensation from your employer the civil way are going nowhere, you should get legal advice. This is essential because there are often time limits on these kinds of claims, so you could fail in your bid for compensation if you leave it too long.