Employees get hurt at work for a wide variety of reasons, and obviously some jobs are more dangerous than others. Whatever your situation may be, it’s important to take the correct steps to get all the workers’ compensation benefits you need after a job-related injury.
Following are two common types of accidents that affect Georgia workers.
Slip-and-falls / trip-and-falls
Not surprisingly, slip-and-fall and trip-and-fall accidents rank as one of the most common types of work-related accidents. Virtually every type of workplace has the potential to present a slip or trip hazard, and anyone could trip over an object, even a small item, or slip on a slick surface.
Note: To get workers’ compensation benefits for a slip-and-fall injury (or any type of work-related injury), you don’t have to prove that anyone was at fault. The Georgia workers’ compensation system is a no-fault system, so you don’t have to prove that your employer or a co-worker was negligent. However, in some cases, a third party (someone not your employer or a coworker) may have caused the slip or trip hazard. In such a case, you may have grounds for a personal injury claim in addition to a workers’ compensation claim.
‘Contact’ injuries
Similar to slips and falls are “contact” accidents. This is where a person suffers an injury due to the impact of an object. On the job site, an object could be just about anything: a tool or other piece of equipment, a display shelf, a falling brick or tape measure, a toppled pallet, etc.
In fact, a major concern for warehouse workers, in particular, is getting run down by a pallet jack or fork lift. With that kind of situation in a warehouse, there can be workers from many different employers in the same place. So if you are run down due to someone else’s negligence, you have your workers’ comp claim against your specific employer you were working for at the time, but you may also have a third-party case if the person who was at fault works for a different employer in the same warehouse.
A similar situation is when you are in a vehicle while on the job and get in a wreck due to the other driver’s fault. You have the workers’ comp case against your employer who you were driving for, and you may have a third-party personal injury claim against the other driver who had nothing to do with your employer.
Contact- and impact-related injuries can be catastrophic, such as with traumatic brain injuries. These situations require careful consideration of the full extent of the injury and how it affects your life. That means carefully considering the workers’ compensation benefits you’ll need to put your life back together. It’s important to work with a workers’ comp attorney after a contact injury to make sure you have the medical benefits and wage-loss benefits you need to heal and support yourself and your family.
Important to get the specific benefits you need
Access to Georgia workers’ compensation benefits can make things a lot easier for someone who is out of work or who can’t work as much due to an injury. Insurance companies and employers will do what they can to deny workers’ comp benefits in whole or in part, so it’s only fair that you have a workers’ compensation attorney on your side to help you get the benefits you need and deserve.
For more on these matters, please see our Georgia workers’ compensation FAQ.