When you get hurt at work, you may not be entirely sure of what steps to take immediately after the accident. You realize that it is not fair for you to cover your own medical expenses and recovery bills. You also may fear, however, approaching your employer and asking for help paying for your accident-related expenses.
Instead of paying for these bills on your own or even forgoing medical treatment, you can make use of legal rights that your state laws allot to accident victims like you. You can start building your case by hiring a workers' compensation lawyer to represent you.
Establishing Liability
Your workers' compensation lawyer will initially work to establish who is to blame for your accident. They will aim to show that you bore no responsibility for what happened to you. Your attorney does not want the court to find any reason to place any of the legal or civil liability on you.
To ensure that you avoid having to accept total or partial blame, your workers' compensation lawyer will use evidence in the accident to show what really happened. They can subpoena proof like surveillance video and the testimonies of people who worked the same shift and saw what happened. Your attorney can also question your supervisor or manager and find out if this person ordered you to engage in risky behavior that led to you getting hurt.
Once your workers' compensation lawyer establishes the faulty party in the accident, they can name that person in the civil case. Your attorney can also use that evidence to compel both the court and the employer to cover your expenses for medical care, rehabilitation, prescriptions, mobility devices, and other treatments that you need to recover from the accident.
Your workers' compensation lawyer can also make sure that your employer does not take retributive action against you. They will ensure that you are not fired, transferred, or furloughed from your job without due cause that is not related to the accident itself. Your lawyer can file a lawsuit if they suspect that you are being punished for getting hurt at work.
A workers' compensation lawyer can provide vital services to accident victims. They can prove what happened in the accident and hold that party responsible. Your lawyer may also be able to protect your job.
Contact a workers' compensation lawyer near you to learn more about building a case.
