Were you hurt on the job and have questions about what to do when injured from a construction accident? Read this article, then call us today.
1) Choosing the Best Attorney
Construction site accidents are very different than car accidents. There are some important differences.
One of them is who was at fault for causing the injury? Now, of course, if it’s just on the job injury, we have a workers’ comp attorney who can advise you on that. It doesn’t matter whose fault the accident was in that situation. We can still work with you and get compensation, and also if you have permanent impairment and disability, we’ll be happy to analyze your situation and tell you if we can get you more money or if they have stopped your benefits, things like that. That’s a topic for another day.
Beside the work comp benefits, you also need to determine if someone else that’s at fault for causing the accident. If another one of your work buddies drove a forklift over your foot, then we’re going to be looking at a workers’ comp claim, as the attorney explained. However, if it’s a situation where the person who ran over your foot with the forklift works for another contractor at the construction site, then you very well may have a claim against that other person and their employer.
Those kinds of situations get more complicated. You really do need legal assistance in those situations. Any time you’re injured in a construction site accident, it’s pretty common to have both a workers’ comp injury and a claim against another employee. You can have both at the same time.
2) After Your Injury
The first thing that we want to focus on is your medical care, your medical treatment, and especially if you’ve been hospitalized, the follow-up care. You’ll often get referrals to doctors who are not part of your health insurance or that don’t want to see you because it was on the job injury or things like that. You get the best care possible, you recover faster physically, you recover more financially. Those are some of the things that you need to be aware of if you are seriously injured in a construction site accident in Arizona.
3) Common Mistakes To Avoid
First of all people think “hey, I’ll just tough it out.” It’s a huge mistake because if you don’t get better like you’re hoping the next day or the next week or whatever and then you tell your work or report the injury and stuff, that’s going to reduce potentially the value of your claim. Also, if you don’t get medical assistance right away, that’s another huge mistake. People say, oh, I’ll just go home. I’ll sleep it off. I’ll take a day off. The weekend’s coming up. I’ll feel better on Monday. Then you don’t.
You need to report your injury. If you’re afraid about getting fired, call an attorney. Then, if it looks like there might have been a fellow subcontractor who was at fault, an investigation should be started and see if evidence can be captured or witnesses are looked into. If the general contractor might have been at fault, that’s another different situation. These are all reasons to call an attorney. Don’t just stay at home with your leg up watching TV and just think it’s going to work out. Find out what you can do now to protect yourself physically and financially.
4) Notifying Management
If you’re in a construction site accident in Arizona particularly, should you notify my supervisor or my boss? What’s the best thing to do in that situation? Obviously, we’re not talking about a situation where the crane fell on you and cut off your leg. We’re talking about more commonly a situation where maybe it was something as simple as bending over and hurting yourself when you were picking up something or maybe a little more serious involving someone else where they knocked over a piece of equipment, knocked you back, but you dusted yourself off. You’re in one piece. In situations like that, it’s common, especially for men, to feel like, hey, I’m macho. I’m not going to go squealing to my supervisor that I might have hurt my back.
Even if you didn’t report it at the time, call us because one of our attorneys will analyze that situation and let you know if we recommend that you do file a report. In most cases, we will. That’s to protect yourself for a workers’ comp claim. If it’s a claim against another subcontractor or something like that, it’s important that you make a record of it because if you stay home for the weekend and then you feel like crap on Monday and then you get medical care. Even worse, you wait a week, or two weeks, or four weeks, the value of your claim is going to go down if it’s a personal injury claim. Your workers’ comp claim can definitely be affected as well.
Call us first. Let one of our attorneys analyze your situation. We can advise you about notifying whoever needs to be notified. In certain cases, we can file the notice for you. We’re going to do what’s going to protect your rights. Remember, if you’re in a construction site accident and you have any question about whether, and even if you notified your supervisor, that’s no guarantee that they notified anyone above them. Call us anyway and we can check on that for you and you don’t have to worry about what’s my boss going to think or whatever. We’ll take care of that for you. We’ll always discuss it with you first. We won’t do anything without your permission. Our goal is to protect your rights and maximize the recovery that you get because the most important person is always you.
Have you been seriously injured on a construction site and have questions about what to do when injured from a construction accident? Contact experienced Gilbert Construction Accident Lawyers at Free Injury Advice today for a free consultation and case evaluation.
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel