How To Document Your Injury For Legal Purposes: A Step-By-Step Guide

In this article, you can learn about:

• How to inform your employer of an injury at work to prevent disputes down the road
• What to do immediately after a work-related injury to preserve your right to workers’ compensation
• Important records to keep in support of your workers’ compensation claim

What’s The First Step You Should Take Immediately Following An Injury?

If you have had an injury at work, the first thing you need to do is immediately inform your employer. Just telling them verbally is not enough because they could forget or deny what you told them later. It is important to send an email or a text or quickly write down what happened on a sheet of paper. Make sure your written communication is signed and dated and that you keep a copy for yourself.

After telling your employer that you have been hurt at work, you should seek medical treatment. Telling your employer that you were hurt doesn’t help you if you don’t go see a doctor as soon as possible. If you wait a week or two or never go to a doctor, it can be just as devastating to your claim as not telling your employer about your injury in the first place.

Your employer should tell you where you need to initially go to see a doctor. It could be the emergency room or some kind of primary care facility. Either way, your employer should have a designated place where employees are supposed to go for medical treatment. If they don’t, they can still direct you to get treatment and explain where they want you to go.

If an ambulance comes and drives you away after your injury, notifying your employer of your injury is less of an issue. It can easily be shown that your employer knew you were hurt if there were EMTs walking around the facility and an ambulance driving off.

When you tell the doctor how you got hurt, it is critical that it matches what you told your employer in writing. Saying that you fell off a ladder to your employer and then telling the doctor that you fell down the stairs sometimes may not seem like a big deal. But even if it’s just a miscommunication, the discrepancy can be used to question whether you are being truthful.

One simple inaccurate medical notation could cause a credibility issue in your case. There could be a video that shows you falling off a ladder and eight witnesses who say the same thing. But if your medical records say something else, it could call into question what happened. This is true even if the mistake was made by the medical staff and not you.

Why Is It Important To Give Your Employer Notice Of An Injury In An Email Or Other Writing?

There are two main reasons why putting it notice in writing is preferable:

1. If you give notice of an injury in writing, your employer can’t later dispute what you said. If you only give verbal notice, your employer could try to twist your words or deny that you gave notice at all.
2. The second benefit to giving written notice is that the law requires that the employer be notified in writing within 30 days.

To give sufficient written notice, you don’t have to give your employer a three-page handwritten letter. You can simply send an email or a text message. This will create a dated record of your notice to support your claim.

Of course, your employer could still try to claim that your notice was unclear or that they didn’t understand it. However, the words you wrote will be available for the court to see. You can also explain to the court what you meant so long as your explanation is logical.

What If I Didn’t Give My Employer Written Notice That I Was Injured At Work?

If you didn’t give your employer written notice of your injury, you may still have a valid workers’ compensation claim. Written notice is not required if your employer has actual notice, meaning the injury was obvious based on what happened. For example, your employer had actual notice if an ambulance and EMTs came to your workplace to provide you with medical care.

It is much harder to claim your employer had actual notice if you simply mentioned being hurt. For example, if you told your employer that your back was hurt, it may not be enough. Your employer may admit that you told them about the injury but may say you didn’t make it clear that the injury happened at work.

What’s The First Step You Should Take Immediately Following An Injury? Contact Workers Compensation Attorney Justin Wraight for an initial consultation: (833)444-4127

Cardinal Law Partners has multiple offices throughout the state of North Carolina and has helped countless clients just like you navigate the intricacies of workers’ compensation law. With over 50 years of collective legal experience, our board-certified attorneys are prepared to assist you with getting compensated for your injuries so that you can focus on your recovery without financial strain.

Still have questions? Ready to get started? Contact Cardinal Law Partners today to schedule an initial consultation.

Even if you insist that you told your employer you were injured while working, they can dispute what was said if it’s not in writing. This would put you in the difficult position of needing to prove that the employer had actual notice. If they don’t have notice, it may be too late to file a workers’ compensation claim.

Sometimes, even good employers will dispute having proper notice of an injury. They want to discourage employees from filing illegitimate or untimely claims. By putting your notice in writing, you avoid potential disagreements about what was said in your notice and avoid challenges to the timeliness of your claim.

How Do I Keep Track Of Missed Work And Lost Wages Due To My Injury?

After an injury that causes you to miss work, it is a great idea to get a calendar ready. You should use the calendar to keep track of everything related to your workers’ compensation claim, such as:

• Therapy appointments
• Mileage driven to see doctors
• Days you missed work
• And more…

It is important to write all this information down on a calendar, diary, or some kind of log. If you don’t do that, it becomes very difficult to remember everything, as it could be many months before those details become important in your claim. Having thorough records will ensure that nothing is left out or confused when it comes time to prove how much compensation you are entitled to.

How Is Maintaining A Detailed Medical Record Crucial For Supporting My Injury Claim?

Maintaining a detailed medical record is critical because it prevents discrepancies in your claim that could hinder your ability to collect compensation. Your priority should be to remain consistent in everything you tell doctors, your employer, the insurance company, and anyone else you speak with about your injury.

It is important to be consistent in time, place, and manner. For example, if you were injured on November 5th, you should be consistent in giving that exact date. If you were hurt at the crimping machine at around 4:00 PM, you should make sure that everyone knows you were near the crimping machine around 4:00 PM.

Medical personnel often write things that you don’t get to see for weeks or months. If there are any inconsistencies, the workers’ comp carrier is likely to try to exploit them. They will claim that the discrepancies show that you cannot be believed.

You can avoid inconsistencies in your records by always having a signed written statement about the incident with you. Instead of giving a new statement every time you’re asked about what happened, you can give a copy of the same statement to everyone. Then, if your doctor or the insurance company has records that differ from your statement, it is easier to show that they are to blame for the inconsistencies.

Is There Any Point Or Importance In Documenting The Emotional Impact Of An Injury?

While there is no specific claim for emotional distress in workers’ comp cases, it can never hurt to document your emotional distress. When emotional distress results in a diagnosed medical condition, such as depression, you absolutely can be compensated for that. Under these circumstances, you can be covered if it results naturally from the injury.

For example, you may have hurt your back, making you unable to work. After a year of dealing with back pain, not working, and not being able to interact with your family the same way, you may start becoming depressed. If a doctor links that depression to your workplace injury, that is covered by workers’ compensation.

On the other hand, workers’ compensation will not pay you just because you experienced emotional distress during an incident at work. For example, it would likely cause a great deal of emotional distress to see a co-worker get beat up by an intoxicated customer late at night. This alone, however, would not entitle you to file a workers’ compensation claim.

For more information on How To Document Your Injury For Legal Purposes, a free initial consultation is your next best step. Get the information and legal answers you are seeking by calling (833) 444-4127 today.