What Can Void Your Worker’s Compensation Claim?

A worker's compensation claim might not be a walk in the park for everyone. There could be obstacles on your path when filing your claim, along with loopholes that your employer could find in your claim.

Don't forget that you need to prove that these injuries occurred on the job for your worker's compensation plan to be valid. Below, we’ve listed a few things that might void your claim if you aren’t careful.

1. Failure to Report the Injury Immediately

Worker's compensation law from most states mandates that you report any injury from work as soon as possible, within seven days. Not reporting accidents immediately doesn’t go over well with workers compensation insurers. By not reporting the accident immediately, you’re creating the assumption that you weren’t really injured.

 
Avoid waiting to report your accident, especially if you feel the injury might cause you to miss work. Report it, and file an accident report. This will assist your claim of getting any entitled benefit as soon as possible.

2. You Filed a Claim After You Were Laid off

You might be legitimately injured at work, but the delay can affect the validity of your claim. As a result, filing the claim after getting fired might not prove helpful to insurers. Many times, they interpret such a claim as a means for revenge. As a result, do not delay filing your claim if there is a legitimate injury from work. Trying to convince the insurer and compensation judge that your injury was related to work will be pretty tricky.

3. Failure to Follow Rules

An employer could sometimes claim that a worker's injury is tied to negligence, failure to pay attention, or followed laid down safety rules. They might argue that such an employee disregarded the safety rules, worked without the assigned personal protective equipment or was distracted.