1. You can be injured without being physically hurt, and you might not even realize it.
For example, imagine that someone cuts in front of you at the grocery store check-out line. They act like they’re in a hurry, but they don’t have all their groceries out yet so there’s no real reason to push their way through the rest of the line. They get angry when you make them wait while they finish up. Are there any occupational risk factors? (Occupational risk factors are things that increase the chance of developing a certain type of injury). For example, if the grocery store checker had to stand all day at their checkout station, and they often act rudely to people who cut in front of them, then you might have a compensable case for your injuries.
2. You don’t have to be working when you’re injured to accumulate workers’ compensation benefits.
If your injuries happen while you’re going about daily activities like running errands or doing yard work, then these are not considered “occupational” injuries under workers’ compensation laws. This means that your employer will usually not be responsible for paying your medical bills or wage replacement benefits. However, there are exceptions to this rule. If you were working when you got injured, or if you were engaging in some type of “off-duty” activity that was required by your employer (like attending a company picnic), then your injury might be compensable under workers’ comp laws. You can get in touch with work injury lawyers in Houston to know more about the procedure.
3. You don’t have to lose time from work in order to make a claim for workers’ compensation benefits.
It’s important to note that sometimes the most serious injuries don’t involve any time off from work at all. This is because many injuries can still affect your ability to do things like sit, stand and lift even though they’re not immediately obvious or painful during the day. This can make it hard to prove your claim. If you find yourself in this situation, you may want to consider filing a third party claim instead. Third party claims are basically when you sue someone other than your employer for your injuries (for example, if the grocery store checker from #1 above pushed past you and got into a car accident). This is why it’s important to work with an injury lawyer in these situations because they will understand how best to proceed depending on what kind of case you have.
4. You can still make a claim for workers’ compensation benefits even if the injury occurred outside of work hours and away from work premises as long as there is some connection to work at all.
For example, imagine that I’m leaving my office one evening after working late when I get hit by another driver who ran a red light and was speeding down the road while on their cell phone. My injuries include pain and swelling in my right knee where I was hit along with headaches due to stress caused by not being able to handle all my normal responsibilities at home while recovering from my injuries.
The driver’s insurance company might try to deny my claim because I was off work when this happened and also because I got hurt outside of my city. But as long as there is some connection to work, you can still make a workers’ compensation claim. In this case, I was working late nights at home getting ready for an important presentation in the morning so the connection is clear.
5. You can be injured by someone who doesn’t even know they’re doing it.
This happens more often than you think. For example, imagine that your car is damaged while parked on a busy street by another vehicle that drives over it after hitting a pothole or other obstacle in the road (this kind of thing happens all the time). The person who hit your car usually doesn’t even realize they did it so they don’t stop to exchange information or help out with damages like bodywork and paint jobs afterwards anyway (not that they should have to pay for those things if you weren’t inconvenienced but it’s good to get their contact info just in case). There are times when these types of situations are covered under workers’ compensation laws too as long as you can prove what happened and provide evidence about any injuries you sustained from being rear-ended which makes them compensable within certain circumstances too depending on how badly injured you were from being hit by another vehicle behind yours.
I hope this post helped you understand a little bit more about injury law and some of the things to know if you ever were hurt or injured while working or even just going about your daily activities. I truly enjoyed writing this post, but I think it’s time for me to get back to my usual routine. It was nice getting back into the swing of things after taking a break over the holidays!