If you are filing a personal injury or workers’ compensation claim after being injured on a job site, the first step you will take is reporting a construction accident injury to your employer. If you do not immediately report your injury, you may not be eligible to receive compensation. Contact our office today to find out how our experienced Hamburg construction accident lawyers can help with your case.
Reporting a Construction Accident Injury | Immediate Notice
The law requires that there be immediate notice to the employer. If the employer does not know that you have been hurt on the job, there can be controversy later regarding whether you were in fact hurt on the job. The insurance company that represents that employer at the workers’ compensation board will then allege that the injury did not happen at work, attempting to discredit and lay the blame on the employee.
If you are
injured at work, you need to report your injury to your employer as soon as
possible. Sometimes injuries are obvious; for example, if you fall into some
sort of an excavation site, you will likely have a witness to your injury. In
the event that you are injured at work and someone else did not hear or see the
incident, especially if the injury relates to your back or your shoulder, you
need to notify a colleague and your employer if you trip and fall and tear up
your knee or tear up your ankle. People are going to be there to assist you.
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Reporting a Construction Accident Injury | Workers’ Compensation Law
Section 120 of the Workers’ Compensation Law makes it illegal for an employer to terminate an employee because the employee has filed a claim. When claims are brought against employers for wrongful termination, though, they are not easy claims to prosecute. It must be definitively determined that the reason for the firing was the filing of a claim, and intent can be challenging to demonstrate. Employers will try to dodge responsibility and assert that the reason behind the firing was the need to replace the employee. The conversations that you have with your employer at the time that you are injured or fired are critical and must be recorded by you on paperwork as soon as you can. This way, it can be verified that the employer is terminating you because you filed a workers’ compensation claim. There are significant accident risks at many construction sites, and it is often the responsibility of the employer to take action to keep that risk as low as possible.
If you’d like to gain compensation for a recent construction injury, be sure to contact one of our experienced Hamburg construction accident lawyers. Chiacchia & Fleming, LLP is prepared to analyze your case for free and fight to get the compensation you deserve.