Tips for Proving Your Injury Occurred at Work

Suffering an injury at work can be a financially and physically devastating process, but luckily, your job has workers’ compensation benefits available. Before you can file a workers’ compensation claim, you must show that the injury occurred at work or was related to work. Without such proof, your job could deny your claim.

Here are a few key steps you need to take to provide proof to your employer that your injury occurred while you were on the job.

Take Several Photos

Photographs provide excellent evidence to support your claim that you were injured at work. If you are not able to take the photos yourself due to the nature of the injury or if your phone is damaged during the injury, ask a coworker to take the photos for you. Here are a few key things you need to photograph as quickly as possible after the accident occurs:

• Your injuries. Snap pictures of any injuries as quickly as possible after the injury occurs. For example, if you suffered a slip and fall, take pictures of any cuts or other abrasions.
• The site of the injury. Take several pictures of the place where the injury occurred, paying special attention to any violations or circumstances that led to the injury. For instance, if there is a chemical spill and no warning signs or attempt to clean up the spill was made.
• Injuries at the hospital. Continue to document your injuries while in the hospital. For example, if bruises later showed or you noticed new injuries while being examined by a physician, take a picture.
• Injuries after any surgeries or procedures. Take photos of the affected areas of your body after a major surgery or procedure.

Take quality pictures from several angles, and store these pictures on a separate external hard drive or flash drive to ensure that if the originals are damaged in any way, you have backup images.

Fill Out an Accident Report Right Away

Your accident report is not only mandatory but also your opportunity to provide a detailed account of how the injury occurred. Typically, you will be asked to provide your name, date, address, and other pertinent personal information. Your employer will also have a section that will allow you to describe the nature of your injury.

Be thorough and specific when describing your injury. Provide the specific time the injury occurred, exactly where the injury occurred, every injury you suffered because of the incident, and who else was near you when the incident occurred. Write down any circumstances that lead to the incident, including any safety violations at work.

Waiting to fill out an incident report will not only make your employer’s insurance company question the validity of your claim, but you may also forget important details of the incident if you wait several hours or days to recount the accident.

Gather Witness Statements

Any witnesses to the incident can provide valuable proof that your accident occurred at work.

Ask everyone who witnessed the accident to provide their name, work title, phone number, and a detailed account of the incident. The witnesses should provide details about what occurred and when the injury took place. Once again, it is critical that the witness statements are thorough because the more detail the witnesses can provide, the more proof you will have that your injury occurred at work.

From photos to witness statements, these are several ways you can gather proof to support your worker’s compensation claim. Contact the professionals at Walz Law Office with any other questions and concerns.

A workers’ compensation injury is not always the product of a single incident. It can also be a product of wear and tear over time. For instance, an installer of carpet who works on their knees a lot may have worn out knees. This may be compensable as a workers’ compensation injury. Someone who does data entry may get carpal tunnel from the many hours using a keyboard. These are known as Gillette injuries in Minnesota.

Make sure you contact Walz Law Office to find out your rights in the workplace regarding injuries you may have sustained related to your work.