WHY HAVE I NOT HEARD ANYTHING AFTER REPORTING MY INJURY TO MY EMPLOYER?

Information may not be reliable

There are several reasons why you may not have been contacted by anyone concerning your injury at work after reporting the injury to your employer:

1. Your employer may not have reported your injury to their workers’ compensation insurance carrier.

Just because you reported the injury at work to your employer, this does not mean that they have taken the appropriate actions to address the possible benefits owed for the work injury. For employers with 3 or more employees, the employer is required to provide workers’ compensation coverage for its employees.

When an employer obtains workers’ compensation coverage for its employees the insurance carrier providing this coverage will charge the employer premiums in order to provide this coverage for its employees. When an employer reports an injury at work to their insurance carrier for workers’ compensation coverage this can result in the employer having to pay more for their premiums to the insurance carrier in the future. There are some employers who in order to avoid a possible increase in their workers’ compensation insurance premiums will choose not to report the injury to their insurance carrier.

In these situations, a claim for workers’ compensation benefits needs to be filed with the N.C. Industrial Commission in order to ensure proper notice to the employer’s workers’ compensation insurance carrier and address benefits which may be owed to the injured worker.

2. The individual who you reported your injury to may not have alerted the appropriate individual with the employer.

In the past I have run into instances where a client reported the injury, on the date of the injury, to their supervisor but the supervisor never alerted the appropriate individual of this injury. For some employers, the human resources director or risk manager for the employer is responsible for reporting work injuries to their workers’ compensation insurance carrier. If this is the case, then there could be delay in the workers’ compensation claim.

3. There has been no official claim for benefits filed with the N.C. Industrial Commission

The only time that an employer or insurance carrier is required to notify an injured worker of the employer or insurance carriers agreement or refusal to provide workers’ compensation benefits is when the injured worker has filed an official claim for workers’ compensation benefits. In some instances when an injured worker reported an injury to the employer and even when the employer reports the injury to their workers’ compensation carrier, no actions are taken by the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier until the injured worker files an official claim for workers’ compensation benefits. In these instances, before the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier takes actions regarding the injury at work, they wait to see if they injured worker plans to pursue possible benefits owed for the injury at work. The filing an official claim for workers’ compensation benefits is sometime the action required in order to prompt actions by the employer or workers’ compensation insurance carrier in addressing the possible benefits owed due to the injury at work.

Anytime you are injured at work and report the injury to your employer, but you have not heard from anyone about the work injury, I recommend you speak with an attorney in order to understand what legal rights you have and what actions can be taken in order to address the possible benefits owed due to the injury at work.

If you ever experience this situation following your injury at work, contact Cardinal Law Partners and speak with one of our board certified workers’ compensation specialists, at no cost, in order to obtain information about your legal right and what actions can be taken in order to address the possible benefits owed due to your work injury.