Is There a Chance That Your Workers' Compensation Claim Can Be Denied?

Law Blog

Workers' compensation is an essential benefit for employees as it guarantees that any financial difficulties brought about due to medical problems that are work-related will be taken care of. Furthermore, it gives employees a sense of confidence that their wellbeing is being taken care of by their employer. However, simply because you have filed for workers' compensation is not an automatic guarantee that your claim will be approved. The approval process is quite thorough to ensure that every claim is genuine. Therefore, there is a possibility that the claim could be rejected. Nonetheless, some employees may not be aware of this. If you want to know more, read on for why there is a possibility for your workers' compensation claim being denied.

Failure to report the injury in due time

Irrespective of your injury occurring at the workplace, employees should report the incident in a stipulated timeframe. If you do not meet the deadline that is in your contract, then there is a likelihood that the claim can be denied. The reason behind having a timeframe is to allow the employer adequate time to carry out an internal investigation of the circumstances surrounding the accident so that they can establish what happened precisely. If this investigation is not conducted, then it could be difficult to prove that the trauma acquired is directly related to the work that you were performing, mainly if it is an ambiguous injury.

The injury was acquired out of the workplace

The principle behind workers compensation is to ensure that employees will always have a fall back in the event their safety is compromised at work. Hence, in some cases, it can be challenging to have a claim approved if you acquired your injury when you were away from the premises. It should be noted that in some individual cases, such as if you were inside a company vehicle and became injured, the compensation claim could go through. Nonetheless, unless you can prove that you were in the midst of conducting business on behalf of your employer, it will be hard to have a claim approved for trauma outside of the workplace.

You did not issue all pertinent medical records

In some scenarios, you may have reported the accident promptly but still have your workers' compensation claim denied. In such a situation, it is possible that you did not adhere to the requirements of handing in all medical records that are related to the injury. For your employer to gather sufficient evidence, they need official documents outlining the extent of the injuries, the diagnosis as well as the treatment prescribed by the doctor that provided medical care.

For more information or assistance, contact companies like Hoffmans Injury Lawyers.

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23 May 2018