Everyone wants a job that they can enjoy. After all, it is where you spend a significant amount of your time. However there are times that accidents could happen on the job, and this is when you will likely need help from a workers compensation attorney. Particularly in certain risky careers, it is important for the employees and the company to have a good relationship with a quality workers compensation law firm in order to protect those at risk of harm on the job.
How workers compensation attorneys can help
A workers compensation claim is typically filed when an injury or illness caused by the work environment or work situation occurs. This could be any number of things. Employees could slip or fall, be injured by faulty equipment, or fall ill from breathing in toxic chemicals or fumes. Workers who regularly work from high heights or with extremely heavy equipment are some of the most at risk workers, and must comply with stringent health and safety codes and requirements in order to be allowed to operate certain machinery or particular situations.
A workers compensation attorney can help to prove whether or not all regulations were met when the illness or injury occurred, on the part of the employee, the environment in which he or she was working, or the company itself.
The frequency of workplace injuries
Over the course of one year, workers across the United States were missing an average of about eight days of work as a result of injuries in the workplace. During that same year, workplace sprains, tears and strains totaled about 327,060, while slip, trip and fall injuries numbered around 229,190, and there were about 170,450 back injuries.
While the ultimate goal is to diminish these occurrences to none at all, in the meantime workers compensation attorneys help to keep injured workers from complete financial ruin while they attempt to recover. Workers compensation benefits will often pay 100% of the costs related to medical expenses for the injured party, as well as pay cash benefits, after a waiting period of three to seven days, for the time lost while they are not able to get to work.
Staying safe on the job
There are unfortunately plenty of workplace incidents that cannot be avoided, as they are entirely accidental, which there is not much room for in some hazardous environments. But a great deal of the injuries and illnesses that are sustained on the job could have been avoided. It is crucial, on any job, to carefully follow any and all instructions, guidelines, and regulations that are in place, however mundane or useless they might seem to be at first. Our society has advanced and evolved, taking great strides over the last few generations to accelerate our development of inventions and innovations. But it is important to work in harmony with these developments, for your own safety, and the safety of those around you.
Even the safest person can be at risk of getting injured on the job. It is paramount that every employee approaches each new work day and every new situation with care and caution. If everyone takes care to not only keep themselves as safe as possible, but to also watch out for each other as well, the incidents of workplace injury can start to diminish. Safety should always be the highest priority.
