The chances are you’ve seen the workplace injury adverts on television or online, and you’ve heard about employees claiming back millions of dollars, sometimes in a single case, when they’ve been injured at work, and it’s not their fault.
More and more people are starting to really understand how workplace safety regulations and mindfulness is so important. After all, why should you miss out on life for the negligence of somebody at work in the form of lifelong injury, lost income and loss of quality of life?
It’s simply not fair, which why personal injury exists in the first place, but many of you are asking what actually counts as ‘personal injury’ and what degree of injury entitles you to compensation. Today, you’re going to find out everything you need to know.
The Basic Requirements
Before we jump into the details of what makes workplace injury compensation and what qualifies, there are a few basic points we need to cover. For example, first, you need to make sure you’re an actual employee of a company.
If you’re the owner of the business, you won’t be entitled to it. What’s more, you need to make sure you’re carrying worker’s compensation insurance. This is a must to ensure you’re covered for an injury. Then, moving onto the injury themselves, you must have sustained the injury at work during work hours.
You can’t be anywhere out and about outside of the workplace for this to count. Finally, you must make sure all the paperwork and claiming deadlines are met in order to qualify for compensation. Meet all these criteria, and you’ll have a case for compensation.
What Injuries Are Covered Under Workplace Injury?
In short, all kinds of injury are covered and classed as workplace injury as long as they fit two criteria; the incident happens at work, and it’s not your fault. The incident needs to happen while you’re at work and working during your work hours.
This could even count if you travel for work, such as a sales rep, and something happens while you’re in another company’s premises. However, you need to ensure you’re not at fault. For example, if you get your hand trapped in a machine, this could be your fault if your hand was where you were trained and told not to put it; especially if there’s a sign there.
However, if a machine breaks or faults and a part hits you and you’ll follow all the trained safety procedures, you would be entitled to compensation. Personal injury cases are very case dependent because it depends on the individual circumstance of what happened, and you can be sure they would be an investigation from both your side and your company.
Going to Court
Once all the evidence has been gathered, the chances are you’ll go to court to give your statements officially and for lawyers and injury claims attorneys to go through and decide whether you were at fault or not. If you’ve proven that the accident wasn’t your fault, you’ll be entitled to the agreed sum of compensation.
Summary
As you can see, the process of getting compensation from your workplace injury is simple, but it’s the details of each individual case that will make the decision as to whether you get your compensation or not. Always seek professional legal advice and guidance for the best possible outcome.