If you have been injured while traveling for work there are steps that you must follow. Firstly, if you are planning to make an injury claim, it is essential to know what legal rights you have and to seek professional help before going any further. Getting injured can be overwhelming enough, let alone without the potential stress of a compensation claim. However, it is worth doing to make sure you get the right justice. To reduce part of the stress, this article will provide you with a step-by-step guide for what to do post getting injured.
What You Need To Do
Here are the simple steps to follow when involved in an accident:
Step 1: Get Medical Help
First things first you need to seek the medical help you need. This should be of the utmost importance as you donât want to let the injury get worse. If you are abroad, and you are not sure about getting medical attention, if the injury is not life-threatening, it is worth calling your employer to check what their travel insurance policy is. If your employer discourages you from seeking medical help, this is illegal. Do not engage with that idea.
Step 2: Record The Details
Your workplace ought to have a protocol for writing up incidents, including work travel injury. Once you have taken some rest, it is important to log the details of the incident as soon as you can. The longer you wait, the more things can become blurry, especially with the more traumatic incidents. If you are unsure about how to log what happened, write it down and then come back to it and ask your employer. If they tell you that you donât need to log what happened, then they are acting illegally and trying to protect themselves. You must record the incident.
Step 3: Rest And Recover
Do not rush back to work. You should take the time to rest and recover from your injury. Going back too soon can put yourself and others at risk if you are not ready. Additionally, depending on the severity of your injury, you run the risk of a relapse/re-injury.
Step 4: Find An Attorney
Depending on what accident you go through will depend on who is best to go for legal advice. According to the people behind https://usa-law.org/truck-accident-attorney/, if you were involved in a trucking incident, you should seek out the help of a professional lawyer. It is important to have someone in your corner, who can provide you with the right advice and necessary tools to get the compensation you rightfully deserve.
Step 5: Talk To Your Employer
Initially, you may feel afraid or uncomfortable to talk to your employer, however having clarity between the employer and employee can be very beneficial when it comes to making a claim. Once you have sought legal advice, you will feel more confident in telling your employer how you wish to proceed as they wonât be able to feed you any rubbish about not having any rights.
Another important thing to note is that, at any point, if you feel pressured to return to work, remember you do not have to do this until you are deemed fit to. Not by the employerâs standards, but by medical professionalâs standards. Donât be fooled into not making a claim, and at any point, you have questions, direct them to your legal advisers.
Who Can Make A Work Travel Injury Claim
Making a work travel injury claim is a bit more difficult than your usual work compensation claim. That being said, it is still worth pursuing. Whether or not you can make a claim comes down to what you were doing when the accident occurred. âWork-Travelâ injury claims can be murky because people can debate what counts as a work environment when out of the âtypicalâ workplace.
If the injury occurred while doing anything that was necessitated due to your work, then you can and should make a compensation claim.
What if My Claim Is Contested?
If your claim is initially rejected, all is not lost. Sometimes mistakes are made, and sometimes cases can be very much up to interpretation, and that is very much the difficulty of these work travel cases. You may be able to appeal, however only if new evidence arises. For instance, if you have a record of a doctor or physician providing their analysis of your injury from before that you did not put forward initially.
If your claim was contested, you should talk with your legal representation about how best to move forward. If they think there is no case, then there probably isnât enough evidence to get the claim approved.
A Short Summary
There are three main things to take away from this article. Firstly, make sure you have a good, appropriate legal team/adviser in your corner. Having the correct attorney by your side will make sure that you don’t get cornered into making silly mistakes. With the right legal team, you will ensure that you are protected throughout the process.
Secondly, make sure you document everything as well as you can. Log it in your work incidents system, write it down, put it in an email, and ask for a doctorâs note every time you have to see a medical professional. While this may seem like a lot of effort, it will help build a strong, well-documented case. The more evidence there is, the better, as it gives your attorneys more to work with.
Third and finally, put yourself first. Your health is of the utmost importance and should not be taken lightly. Take the time you need to ensure a full recovery. Donât spend time thinking about getting back to work quickly, spend time thinking about how you are going to recover.
As you can see there is a lot to consider when making a work travel injury claim, however, it is worth going through the process to get the rightful compensation that you deserve.
