What are you entitled to after an accident at work?
Accidents in the work place are unfortunately fairly common so it is important to know what kind of compensation you are entitled to when they happen. This will help to ensure that you receive all of the money that you are entitled to if you are injured at work. You may need the help of a lawyer in order to make this happen.
After an accident work at a minimum you are entitled to workers compensation. This is money that will compensate you for any medical expenses that you have as well as any time that you miss from work. In order to make this claim you are going to have to have both your doctor and your employer fill out forms. If the injuries that you have suffered are relatively minor and you are expecting to be able to return to work the process is fairly simple and you shouldn't have too many problems.
If you suffer a more serious injury, one that prevents you from returning to work then things get more complicated. You are still entitled to money for your medical care but since this involves trying to estimate how much your future care will cost it can be hard to come up with a number, expect to be offered less than you should be. The other issue that will come up in more serious cases is compensation for not being able to work. In this case you may be offered money for retraining if you can still work but not at the job that you had before. If you can't work at all you will be compensated for that. Again this involves trying to figure out what your future earnings would be as well as what kind of work you can or can't do.
In cases where coming up with an amount that you should be compensated for an accident at work involves estimating future medical costs or earnings you are going to want to have a lawyer to represent you. They will be able to negotiate on your behalf which is something that you will need since you can expect to be offered less than you are entitled to. In some cases it may be necessary to go to court to get the money that you are owed.
While the most common claim if you are injured at work is for workers compensation you may also have a claim against your employer if you were injured as a result of their negligence. In this case you will need a lawyer to make a claim on your behalf and they will usually negotiate a settlement with your employer's insurance company. Again in some cases it may be necessary to go to court. The claim that you have against your employer is completely separate from the one for workers compensation and won't affect how much you receive for that.