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Protecting Your Rights After A Workplace Injury

Workers’ compensation is designed to help people who are injured on the job. For the most part, the benefits include compensation for lost wages and medical expenses, but not for pain and suffering. In a small number of cases, however, other benefits are also available, such as compensation for scarring on your face, neck and head and for losing the use of a limb, part of a limb, a finger or toe or part of a finger or toe.

At Worth, Magee & Fisher in Allentown, our experienced attorneys, led by Robert J. Magee, can help you receive all benefits provided by law.

What You Need To Know About Workplace Injuries

There are many legal factors to consider when pursuing workers’ compensation benefits. If you have been injured in the course of your employment and have questions about your entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits, here are some key factors that require prompt consideration.

  • Report the injury immediately to your supervisor or another person in management, no matter how minor or insignificant you think the injury is. Often you will strain your back or feel a twinge in your knee and think that you will just work it off, and don’t report it. That is asking for trouble and may provide a defense for your employer.
  • The injury does not have to occur on the employer’s property to be covered. You will be covered as long as you were doing something to help your employer, such as making a delivery or pickup or traveling between one worksite and another. In addition, even short breaks to attend to your “personal comfort” (for example, going to the bathroom) will be covered in most cases.
  • Most employers will tell you that for the first 90 days after an injury, you must go to the doctor chosen by the employer. This can be true, but it is not necessarily true. That depends on whether your employer complied with the law, including providing you with written notification of the “panel” physicians and obtaining a written acknowledgment from you that you received that information
  • Even if you are injured in the first five minutes of starting a new job, you are still entitled to workers’ compensation benefits if the other requirements are met. This is true even if your employer-provided health insurance benefits have not yet kicked in.
  • You are not entitled to wage loss benefits if you miss work due to the injury for seven days or less. However, you are entitled to lost wage benefits starting on the eighth day, and if you are out of work for 14 days, you are entitled to wage loss benefits from the beginning. The days do not have to be consecutive. You are entitled to the medical expense benefit from the first day.
  • If you are working two jobs at the time of injury, you are entitled to have your benefits calculated on the basis of your earnings from both jobs, not just the job at which you were injured.

These are just a few of the issues around workplace injuries that you should be aware of.

Contact Us Today To Discuss Your Workers’ Compensation Issues

We provide diligent, dedicated services focused on obtaining the compensation needed to help you and your family maintain financial stability following an injury at work. Contact us at 866-490-5954 or via email to schedule a free initial consultation.

We offer flexible appointments and home or hospital visits to accommodate your unique circumstances. Our office is fully ADA-accessible.