3 Reasons You Need to File A Workers Comp Claim After An Accident
Depending on the type of work your career falls under, there may be a good chance of accidents that can occur while you are working. While we see workers compensation accidents happen more with manual labor jobs, claims also come from desk jobs. If your have been injured at work and have spent 5 minutes talking to a workers compensation attorney in Seattle you have probably been advised to file a claim with your employer as soon as possible.
You may not think it is a big deal that you file a claim, but the attorney is right. No matter how injured you are, it is always best to file a claim so that the injury is in writing. We have three great reasons for you to consider when you are deciding whether a claim needs to be filed.
Progressive Injury
Sometime when the injury occurs it is not overly bad. Often times people only are in pain for a couple of minutes and then everything seems to be fine and the signs and symptoms are gone. However, the number of times that he symptoms return after an injury way outnumber the number of times that the symptoms do not. If you choose to not file a claim when the injury occurs, you will not be able to go back and file a claim in 2 months when you injury has started to be painful again. Regardless if you need to have medical care as soon as the injury occurs, be sure to sit down with your employer and document that it did occur in case it returns.
Change in Management
Often times people do not think they need to document the problem because their boss has been great to work with them. While this is often the case that peoples employers are really great about helping them after an injury, you can not control who your boss is. Changes in management happen and you never know how a new set of eyes is going to handle your situation. If you file a claim, it is in writing and it will not matter who is your boss or dealing with your situation. Protect yourself and file the claim regardless of how great your employer has been to help your through the process.
Peace of Mind
More than anything else, it is always a good idea to file a claim to give yourself some peace of mind. It can be scary to be injured at work and not know how it is going to affect you tomorrow or a year from tomorrow. Filing a claim so that it is in writing will give you peace of mind. If the injury is documents you will know that no matter how things progress, you will be able to come back to the day that the injury occured if you need to. It does not look bad on you to file a claim with your employer. Be kind and understanding and explain why you want to go ahead and file.