What You Can Do If Your Employer Does Not Cooperate In Filing Worker's Compensation Benefits

Getting injured at work is never an ideal situation, especially if you are left unable to work as a result of the injury. Typically, employees are entitled to worker's compensation benefits to pay for medical expenses and provide for everyday costs. This is the reason that employers pay for worker's compensation insurance—to ensure they are not sued by employees when they are hurt on the job. However, there can be times when an employer is not cooperative on that front. If that happens, there are several things you will need to know:

Why Is Your Employer Not Cooperating With Your Worker's Compensation Filing?

While state laws provide that employers are to have information on worker's compensation benefits readily available for its employees, there may be times where the employer is less inclined to provide it. Generally, the human resources department is ahead of the game with regard to moving the process forward so that there is no opportunity to sue the employer.

There could be any number of reasons this can happen. Perhaps the department does not keep good records. Your employer could also be dragging his or her feet to avoid dealing with the work that goes into filing for benefits.

The more nefarious employers could be uncooperative in filing because the premium for the worker's compensation insurance was not paid. This can cause you to have a serious delay in your coverage, or it could result in you not getting paid at all.

What Can You Do if This Happens?

If your employer is not working steadfastly to get your worker's compensation benefits filing completed, you first need to visit your human resources department. Ask for specific explanations on why your filing is not taking place in a timely manner. It is always a possibility that there was an accidental oversight that was not intended to be uncooperative in your filing.

However, if you find out that there are some issues that seem odd or if you find evidence that there were intentional reasons why your filing is not moving forward, you will need to contact a worker's compensation attorney as soon as possible. These filings can take a long time to approve in the best circumstances, so be sure you talk to your attorney to get the ball rolling and get your expenses covered.

In some cases, it may come to filing a lawsuit to get your worker's compensation benefits. Depending on your injury, you could have tens of thousands of dollars in medical expenses alone, so it is crucial to get your benefits as soon as possible.