Injured at Work? What Next?

Were you injured at work? You will want to know if you can file a work injury claim and how to go about it. First thing you must do is let your employer know that you've been injured during work. Next step is determining if a claim is possible, and lastly, if you qualify for a claim, then you will have to file it.

When a work injury occurs, the employee should immediately tell his employer, and have it recorded in the "accident book." All employers of large companies have such a book, so they can keep track of what's going on in the work place. The employer will then have to report to the Incident Contact Centre of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) if the injury is either a major injury, death, disease, a dangerous incident, or an injury that kept the worker from being fully at work for more than three days.

 
To file a work injury claim, the injury has to be your employers, or a another employees fault. Having said this, you will need to be able to prove your work injury to be of their fault. How can an injury be your employer's fault? An employer must keep the workplace as a safe environment. Proper machinery and tools should be given to the right people, and training for these tools should be given as well. Safety gear must be provided to applicable workers. Once you have established that your injury was the employer's fault, or another employees fault, a claim may be filed.

All companies must have Employer's Liability Insurance, and the information for this insurance must be readily available for the workers. The Employer's Liability Insurance pay for all of the work injury claims, not the employer. If you're going to file a claim, they have up to three years from the accident to file. If the employer was under eighteen at the time of the accident, they have three years from when they turned eighteen to file. A lawyer is usually needed to file the claim, and there are many work injury law specialist who will be able to assist you in filing the claim. If you win the claim, you will be compensated for a loss of earnings and any future loss of income because of the accident.

Getting injured at work is not a fun matter, but with the help of the right lawyers, you can get the money you deserve. So if you've been injured at work, don't wait to file the claim, do it now.