I Fell At Work, What Can I Do?

Many accidents can occur at work. Equipment failures, poor training, simple mishaps–all these can factor in to workplace injuries. Whether voluntary or involuntary, these injuries do occur and serious financial suffering via medical expenses often follow up. One major event that can occur when working is accidental slipping, or falling due to some form of influence, whether it comes from yourself or from someone else. These can be very serious. Whether you fell on the same level or even fell from a higher up area, you may have sustained injuries on any level. While this seems straightforward, dealing with fall injuries can sometimes be an extreme pain.

What Can You Do?

Depending on the range and extent of the injuries after the fall, you could either attempt to file for workman’s compensation, or you could go for a higher gamble and attempt a personal injury claim. Both are possible when at work and having an injury, since both are designed to help you gain back what may be lost in the upcoming days and weeks following your injury. This all depends on the extent of your injury and whether you have suffered damages as a result of the injury. These factors will determine whether or not you file for a worker’s compensation claim or attempt to file for a personal injury claim. So, how do you go about filing for either of these claims?

Document Everything

Although this seems self-explanatory, documenting everything that has occurred can help when piecing together the events that happened before, during, and after the accident. Record where you were and at what time this event took place. This will ensure that you have a solid record of the events, and no one will be fully able to dispute it, as it was recorded at a very recent time to the injury itself. Since you may be going against a large company, they will tend to want to minimize the payouts to the injured. They will try to use any tactic they can to lower their losses, even if that means twisting around memories and words. As such, documentation is a solid helper.

Identify Negligence and Fault

To really solidify a case, make sure to identify if there was negligence or fault by any party involved. This means that you must find the source and cause of the injury, no matter if it is on yourself or another person. For an example of negligence, this can be seen in the situation where a puddle of oil is left after fixing a car and someone else is supposed to clean it. However, it was not cleaned, thus causing you to slip and injure yourself. This would be an example of negligence or fault. Sometimes, simply owning the premises may be enough for fault.

Depending on which type of claim you wish to file for, this may or may not be needed. For cases such as workman’s compensation, you will not have to provide full proof of negligence or fault. Instead, the injury just needs to be tied to the company itself, such as taking place on their premises as an employee. For personal injury cases, you would need to either find negligence on the opposing party’s behalf, or find out if there was a fault from the other party. Fault can be established through such things as unstable lab equipment or improper maintenance.

Hire an Experienced Lawyer

In these kinds of cases, it is best to have an experienced lawyer come out to take a look, as he or she sometimes could see a lot more than just the obvious injuries. He or she would be able to help you cover any loopholes and problematic issues that may appear due to possible exploitation. Making sure you speak to an experienced lawyer will ensure success when attempting to determine what you want to do next. Our attorneys are awaiting your call and will assist you in your time of need.