Workers' compensation is a form of insurance providing wage replacement and medical benefits to employees injured in the course of employment in exchange for mandatory relinquishment of the employee's right to sue their employer for the tort of negligence.
Workers compensation package should be filled out by the employee on any or every work related injury- no matter how small the injury may be, to COVER yourself.
NOTIFY your supervisor about the injury and the way in which it occurred, as soon as possible. An injured employee who fails to inform his or her employer, in writing, within 30 days after the date of the accident causing the injury, may lose the right to workers' compensation benefits or your case can be controverted thus prolonging the process. In the case of occupational disease, notification should be given within two years after disablement, or within two years after the claimant knew or should have known that the disease was work-related, whichever is later).
COMPLETE a claim for workers' compensation on Form C-3 and mail it to the nearest office of the Workers' Compensation Board, if there is lost-time. If a claim is not filed within two years from the date of the injury or disablement from an occupational disease, (or after disablement and after you knew, or should have known that the disease was work-related), you may lose your right to benefits.
Once you have reported it at work, verbally, and in written format, complete your agencies workers compensation package in its entirety, do not leave out any part of the body, etc. that was even remotely injured, add it because if you neglect to add it it will be much more complicated to ammend your claim. Your agency should within 6 to 8 weeks give you a carrier case number, that pertains to the agency, you will also receive a WCB number from the workers compensation board.
It is crucial to retain a skilled workers compensation attorney, you don't pay them anything up front or out of your pocket, they have scheduled fees governed by the NYS workers compensation board.
Make a file & keep a detailed copies of all your paper work in connection to your case; file all pertinent information on your case in the file- they are to name a few out of all, MRI reports, CT scan reports, X-rays, EMG NCV reports, Dr. reports, etc.