What Steps Should I Take if I’ve Been Injured at Work?

Personal Injury Lawyer

If you’ve been injured on the job, you may be feeling understandably overwhelmed. If you’ve suffered head trauma and/or you’ve been prescribed pain medication, you may even be having trouble thinking clearly at the moment. That’s normal and more than okay. What you need to do to preserve your legal and financial interests right now involves taking a few specific steps. If you can’t think clearly, enlist someone you trust to help you through these steps, one at a time. Acting quickly may feel uncomfortable right now but unfortunately, if you don’t act quickly, you may be barred from seeking certain kinds of compensation related to your injuries.

Acting with Intention – One Step at a Time

First and foremost, if your medical wellbeing has not yet been evaluated by a professional healthcare provider, please go get checked out right now. Whether you choose to go to the Emergency Department of your local hospital, an urgent care facility, or to your primary provider’s office, you need to get checked out. Not only will a professional healthcare evaluation better ensure that you heal properly in the long-term and that you uncover any diagnoses you may not yet be aware of, getting checked out helps to preserve certain legal options that can only be exercised if you’ve been formally diagnosed with work-related injuries or occupational illness.

If you’ve already been medically evaluated, it’s time to reach out to our firm to explore your legal options. All consultations are confidential and risk-free. Your employer will not be alerted that you’ve spoken with us or be granted permission to know anything you’ve told us that you don’t give us express permission to communicate. Similarly, you will not be obligated to follow through on any of the legal options available to you simply because you’ve allowed us to help you make an informed decision about those options. Our job is to clarify which options are available to you and what the likely outcome of exercising those options is. The decision to move forward or not always rests with you.

Once you’ve spoken with our firm, you’ll likely need to alert your employer to your injuries and the circumstances that led to them, if your employer isn’t already aware. A Memphis, TN personal injury lawyer like one from Darrell Castle and Associates, PLLC will emphasize that reporting your injuries is the first step towards obtaining workers’ compensation benefits. This reporting also helps to ensure that you and your coworkers will be safer in your workspace moving forward. Know that your employer cannot lawfully retaliate against you in any way for reporting your injuries and/or filing a workers’ compensation claim.

Legal Assistance Is Available

When you arrive for your consultation with our firm, please bring along any documentation that we might find helpful when assessing your case. If you have discharge papers from your medical provider, a copy of your accident report, the names and contact information of witnesses, etc., please bring this information with you. The more we know, the more personalized guidance we can provide. We look forward to speaking with you.