Personal Injury At Work And How Accident Claims Work

Have you experienced a personal injury at work and do not know the steps to follow about how to file a claim properly? After reading this article you will be fully informed about how to correctly and confidently file a personal injury at work claim. First we need to gain a complete understanding of what a personal injury at work claim is and what someone in this situation would be looking to gain.
A personal injury at work claim is filed when an employee is injured on the job in an effort to collect damages for the actions or negligence of another party. These claims can include bodily injury, emotional damages and physical property damage. A claimant (injured person) could also suffer from multiple damages including any combination of all three.
Bodily injury is defined as both objective findings and soft tissue injuries. Some examples of objective findings are easily proved injury such as a broken bone, tear, scarring, loss of limbs and burns. Objective findings are typically long term or permanent injuries which are potentially worth a lot more based on the fact that they can be factually proven. Soft tissue injuries include lower back pain, upper back pain, neck pain, muscle aches, and pains that radiate from one area to another. An example of a radiating pain would be lower back pain that moves from the back down the legs. Emotional damages and distress can include depression and any other kind of psychological injury.
Once you have identified which type of injury or injuries you have suffered, the next step would be to identify the time period it will take to recover and what other losses will be caused from the situation. The longer a person will have to suffer from the injuries will play a major role in deciding what the level of damages they will receive. Make sure you take a thorough account of every injury you’ve incurred. Even minor injuries can be included in your claim.
Once you’ve fully analyzed the extent of your injuries the next step will be find an attorney to represent you on a contingency basis. This means they will not be paid unless the claim is rewarded damages. There are many personal injury attorney’s which do work on the basis of no win no fee. The attorney may try to settle the claim in mediation rather than litigation. This is done in efforts to save on the cost of bring the case to trial. During mediation, you, your attorney, and the insurance company meet to try to come up with an agreed upon settlement amount. Both sides have their target numbers and negotiate to find a suitable figure. If settlement cannot be reached through negotiation during the mediation, a suit will likely be filed and the cast will be heard in court.
If a claim makes it before a jury or judge several things could happen which add risk to the claim. The claim could be found in favor of the insurance company leaving the claimant with nothing. The claimant could be awarded the same amount, less, or more than the amount he or she would have been given if a settlement would be agreed upon during mediation. Or, in a best case scenario, the claimant may be rewarded a much larger amount than originally intended. In any case, court costs will eat into the overall amount of the reward along with time and effort from both the insurance company and your legal representation.