Why You Should Always Contact A Lawyer After a Workplace Injury
The law in each state requires every company to ensure the safety of its staff by establishing that the work environment is healthy and safe. However, there are other incidents where the employer does all that is expected, but an injury still happens in the workplace.
These injuries include occupational sickness, broken bones, psychological injuries, and worsening of pre-existing illnesses.
As a result of these injuries, you are required to adjust your lifestyle, which can be quite overwhelming. Furthermore, you have to deal with the enormous medical expenses that threaten to throw your life into disarray. If you find yourself in such a situation, here are five reasons to hire a personal injury lawyer to help you get suitable compensation for the injuries sustained at the workplace.
1. Lawyers Protect Your Rights
A personal injury lawyer will be your advocate as you negotiate with insurance companies and your employer. During these negotiations, employers will be trying to rid themselves of any liability, whereas the insurance company tries to pay as little compensation possible to protect their profit margins. Fortunately, an experienced injury lawyer will make sure to best represent your interest and get the best deal possible.
Furthermore, their knowledge of the current laws on employee compensation helps them make sure your rights are not violated.
2. Lawyers are Knowledgeable and Experienced
Injury attorneys have specialised in injury cases and boast immense experience handling cases that are identical to yours. They are knowledgeable about the law, and have the most useful information, and ways of building a strong case. They also know what the procedures to follow, paperwork filing procedures, as well as legal matters such as the statute of limitations. Therefore, with their help, you can ensure you are not denied your entitled compensation due to any technicality or paperwork mistakes.
Injury attorneys have specialised in injury cases and boast immense experience handling cases that are identical to yours.
3. Lawyers Negotiate Better Settlement Offers
Plaintiffs who hire injury attorneys to represent them get higher injury compensation compared to those who opted to represent themselves. Therefore, it would be best if you hired an injury lawyer to negotiate a suitable compensation offer on your behalf. This is especially important because the employers usually present an offer lower than what they would pay if they made ongoing payments.
However, this is not the case if a personal injury lawyer represents you. This is because they weigh your case and establish your medical bills plus the associated wage losses. In addition to this, they also help establish the right payment for less quantifiable things such as general damages, pain and suffering, stress, physical discomfort, and the injury’s impact on your life. They then use this total cost when at the negotiation table to determine the best compensation for all your troubles.
Employers are notorious for not offering worthy compensation for an injury sustained at the workplace. This is something you need not worry about if you hire a skilled attorney.
4. Peace of Mind
Getting an injury can be very traumatic since you have to deal not only with the physical pain but also mental and emotional distress. It may be due to the mounting medical expenses and loss of wage as your employer deems you unproductive. This might be worse, especially if you suffered a permanent disability.
In such cases, you are eligible for a single lump-sum payment or weekly payments as compensation for lost wages. Nevertheless, this is not always the case since insurance firms deem this to be very costly. They thus do anything possible to make sure you do not get a fair compensation offer.
In such scenarios, you should hire an injury lawyer who will act on your behalf during these negotiation settlements. Therefore, you get to focus on the most important thing, which is getting better and try living a normal life.
5. Your Boss Hits Back for Demanding Employee Compensation
If you sustain an injury in the workplace, this is not your fault but that of your employer for not ensuring a safe and healthy working environment for the workers. However, some employees do not take it kindly when you decide to file for workers’ compensation claims. They instead retaliate by demoting you, lowering your salary, reducing your hours, or firing you altogether.
This unlawful and unfair treatment should never be allowed in the workplace, and if you find yourself in this position, then hiring a lawyer is the way forward. The attorney will use his expertise and experience practicing law in making sure you get fair and just compensation. This will not only be for the injury but also for the harassment suffered for filing for the workers’ compensation claim.
Conclusion
Getting an injury is unfortunate, and gets worse, especially if it happens while in your workplace. If this happens to you, then it is the best to hire an attorney if the employer’s actions or hired insurance company prove to be unjust and uncooperative. The lawyer will make sure your complaint is not taken for granted, and you get paid a fair amount for all the pain and suffering endured.
