Suffering from an injury at work can be both painful and debilitating. At best, this can be a disadvantage and, in the worst case, it can cause you to miss your job and lose your income. This leads many people to wonder if they are adequately compensated for their injury. There is a simple way to establish this: if you have suffered an injury at work and it is not partly your fault, then you may be entitled to compensation.
However, this can be complicated by the fact that you might not realize at the time that someone else was at fault. For example, your employer may not have followed the correct safety procedures that led to the situation where you were injured. So what should you do if you suffer an injury to give you the chance to receive compensation? Here are six steps to follow to properly handle a workplace incident.
Step 1: Report the incident to your manager or supervisor
Whenever an accident or injury occurs in the workplace, it must be reported and recorded in an appropriate place. It is legally required that companies keep a record of injuries sustained by employees in the performance of their duties, which should not be a problem at all. Talk to your manager or supervisor (or someone in an HR role) who will be able to guide you through the reporting process. This stage of the process will be extremely important later, so it is important that this be done.
Step Two: Collecting Evidence
This may seem premature, especially if you have not suffered a particularly serious injury, but you must gather evidence as soon as possible to find out why the incident occurred. For example, you may have slipped on a wet floor that has not been properly signed. In this case, you should take a picture of the scene to show why you fell. In this situation, there should have been a sign to warn people of the danger of slipping. Getting this proof now is essential because it is clear that this evidence will not be available later.
Third step: visit your doctor
The next step is to visit a doctor who will evaluate your injury. In the case of a serious injury, you may need to visit A & E, but even if the injury seems minor, you should make an appointment with your general practitioner to check it out. By talking to a doctor, we get a new account of the severity of the injury, which can be useful again later.
Remember that this could be the case that the injury does not initially seem important, but could become more serious. If you have not gone to the doctor as soon as possible, it may be very difficult to prove when the injury occurred.
It may be that you have a clear injury case due to a breach of your employer's duty of care, but it is not always that simple. It may well be that your employer is not fulfilling its legal obligations and, as such, puts you at risk, even if you have not realized it in time.
Sixth step: Make your request
From there, your lawyer will be able to advise you if you will be able to make a claim for bodily injury. Many lawyers will work at no cost, no cost, which will allow you to make a simple and affordable claim without having to make large upfront payments.