Trammell Piazza a law firm in Little Rock and Texarkana, AR. Chad, partner, discusses what to do if you get hurt on the job!

So people often ask what do they do if they get hurt on the job. If you get hurt on your job and you’re hurt such that you’re going to need medical treatment and you may be off work, you need to immediately go and talk to your supervisor. Depending on the size of your company, that may lead to you talking to someone in HR, but you’ve got to talk to them and let them know that you’re hurt, that you need medical treatment, and that you may not be able to come back to work. There’s good news if that happens, and there’s this thing called workers’ compensation that a lot of people have heard about. If you get hurt on the job, you don’t have to prove that your employer or anyone was at fault. Just the fact that you got hurt on the job means that you will be compensated for your medical care and medical treatment and you will be compensated for any time you missed from work. That’s how workers’ compensation operates, and your employer has insurance (workers’ compensation insurance) to pay for your medical care. Now the bad news about workers’ compensation is that it doesn’t provide full compensation for your time away from work. It only really typically compensates you at a reduced rate. However, the good news is that you won’t be going for weeks or months without any payment or way to live, because you will be compensated for your time away. But most importantly, though, you’ll have to tell your employer and tell your supervisor “I have been hurt. Here’s my injury, and it’s important” so if you do get hurt, you go forward. Another thing that’s really important is that a lot of us are tough, and we kind of want to say “Oh, I’m not hurt. I’m fine.” The problem with that is if you keep trying to work and you are hurt, you’re going to get hurt a lot worse. So if you’re hurting, injury timeout, stop, talk to your supervisor, and get treatment.