Who Is Responsible After A Construction Site Injury?
After a workplace injury, can you be sure about your financial security? Workers compensation is an option, but may not be available depending on the alleged circumstances surrounding the incident. Workers compensation may not pay enough, or may not be able to promise the kind of recovery and financial stability you need if your condition is more complicated than a few weeks of healing. You need to know who to hold responsible if state support programs aren't enough, and a few stakeholder and financial responsibility points can help you map out a few backup plans.
Who Are The Stakeholders In Your Injury?
You're the most important person in your injury, but you're not the only person affected by both the injury itself and the financial changes it may bring. Your household is affected as well since whether you're the primary earner or not, any missing money during the injury recovery or after your career comes to a close is a hit to the household finances.
Your workplace is affected as well. If they aren't at fault for the injury, they're still missing a productive member of the team. This means that others at the workplace need to fill in for your workload, and you can't simply tough it out by working through an injury; the risk of hurting yourself even worse can affect the bottom line, and no matter how much pride you have in yourself, you're dragging out your fully functional recovery by working at a lower capacity.
Involved insurance agencies are stakeholders as well. While they benefit from businesses continuing to pay for coverage, they're also invested in you getting better while getting as much information needed to prevent the same problem from happening in the future. It's better if you never get injured, but they need to learn as much from the situation after it happens.
Who Is Responsible For Your Recovery And Compensation?
Workers compensation is the first line of defense for injured workers. It's designed to cover a percentage of your normal pay and all of your injury-related medical bills, but there are times when the system doesn't work.
The key here is to have a legitimate injury and then file that injury on time. One of the biggest mistakes any worker can make is assuming that their company will take care of it for them. After all, if there's an insurance company involved, why wouldn't they?
Without being too negative about businesses, there are a few reasons to dispute a legitimate claim--even though that's illegal. The insurance company may have a policy that significantly increases insurance costs after an injury, or there may be a government reporting system that brings charges against businesses that have too many reported injuries.
Whether malicious intent, losing paperwork, or simply forgetting, if your company fails to file the proper paperwork, you may lose your rights to compensation. You are ultimately responsible for filing that paperwork, so make sure to have your own copies ready and an attorney on your side in case the situation looks suspicious.
Responsibility for the injury itself is more complicated. If it wasn't your fault, did a co-worker cause the injury? Was it a safety failure on the part of your company? Even business partners could be responsible, such as safety equipment vendors or workplace equipment vendors. If equipment fails and causes your injury, the manufacturer may be responsible.
There are a lot of angles, but workers compensation is a good time to think. Contact a construction injury attorney to get the ball rolling while you're out of work.
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