It can be difficult to think clearly about protecting your rights in the aftermath of a serious accident. You may be more concerned about treating the injuries that you experienced, worried about when you will be able to return to work or dealing with head injuries that make it difficult to think clearly at all. Although your immediate health and safety are always of paramount importance, once your immediate needs are addressed, it is important to think carefully about how you efficiently and effectively alert your employer to your workplace injury and preserve your workers’ compensation claim. These four steps will help you to accomplish this goal:
Collecting Evidence
In the heat of the moment, it can be difficult to think calmly about what has occurred. But if possible, anyone who experiences a slip and fall injury, whether at work or elsewhere, should do their best to collect evidence about the scene of the accident as close as possible to when the accident occurred.
Conditions can change quickly, especially in a workplace environment, which is why it is important to try to capture the scene so that it represents the conditions at the time you fell. For example, is there an uneven surface or cracked step that caused your fall? If so, you will want to take pictures of that. If there was a spill, you will also want to try to get evidence of the liquid on the floor.
Documenting lack of signage, lack of sufficient lighting, and other dangerous conditions can also go a long way toward helping to prove your workers’ compensation claim. As the claimant, you bear the burden of showing your injury occurred on the job. Photographic documentation or other evidence can go a long way toward establishing your claim.
Look for Witnesses
In addition to collecting objective evidence of your accident, it can also be helpful to have the live testimony of individuals who watched your slip and fall happen. For example, if you fell because of another employee’s carelessness or because of a temporary obstacle on the floor, you may not be able to capture this with a photo. But a witness in the area at the time can testify that the fall occurred.
In most instances, getting the name and contact information of the witness and talking briefly with them about what they observed can be sufficient at the time. If their testimony is later needed, you can reach out to them to facilitate that process. If, however, you have reason to believe the witness may move away, be unavailable, or become uncooperative, you may want to try to secure a written or recorded statement as soon as possible. An attorney at Brotman Nusbaum Ibrahim & Adelman can assist you with this process.
Notify Your Employer
After you have dealt with your immediate medical needs and collected any urgent evidence that you needed to collect, you should notify your employer about your accident as soon as possible and let them know that you have a workers’ compensation claim. This will preserve your claim and ensure that you do not run out of time. It will also get the workers’ compensation process started so that you can get compensation for your medical treatment and time out of work.
Reach Out to Brotman Nusbaum Ibrahim & Adelman to Protect Your Rights
Before or after you have alerted your employer to your workers’ compensation claim, you should reach out to an experienced South Florida workers’ compensation attorney to get further advice on your legal rights. In the aftermath of an accident, many insurers will try to reach out to an employee immediately to get their statement about what occurred. The questions that the insurer may ask you or the information they may request is often targeted toward giving the insurer a basis to deny your claim. Before you provide any information to an insurance company, you should first consult with an attorney at Brotman Nusbaum Ibrahim & Adelman to protect your rights.
A workers’ compensation attorney can also help you negotiate with the insurance company and develop the evidence necessary to support your claim. Particularly where the cause of your slip and fall may be unclear or there were no witnesses available, strategizing with an attorney can be very helpful. To make sure that you receive all of the benefits that you rightfully deserve, we strongly recommend contacting a competent Boca Raton slip and fall attorney who will serve as an advocate for you and help guide you through the entire process. Regardless of which attorney you choose, you should never be asked to pay fees up front.
In all matters involving personal injury, it is essential that measures be taken promptly to preserve evidence, investigate the accident in question, and to file a lawsuit prior to the deadline imposed by the statute of limitations. When you call Brotman Nusbaum Ibrahim & Adelman to discuss your situation, please remember that the initial consultation is free of charge! If we agree to accept your case, we will work on a contingent fee basis, which means we get paid for our services only if there is a monetary award or recovery of funds. Don’t delay! You may have a valid claim and be entitled to compensation for your injuries, but a lawsuit must be filed before the statute of limitations expires. After receiving appropriate initial medical treatment, contact an injury attorney in Boca Raton with experience in handling claims for personal injury resulting from slip and fall accidents. If you or a loved one is a victim of personal injuries, call Brotman Nusbaum Ibrahim & Adelman now at (888) 661-6266.
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