If you experience an injury at work or you contract a disease while in your workplace you may be entitled to file a Connecticut workers’ compensation claim to receive compensation for your injury or time missed from work as the result of the disease you have contracted. However, if you wait too long, you may not have as great of a chance of being compensated fairly or at all for your injury. It is for this reason that prompt reporting is so critical.
In the state of Connecticut there are two timelines that are used to determine when you must report your claim to be eligible for compensation. If you are injured on the job you are required to report it within one year of the initial injury. If you contract or develop symptoms of an illness or disease while on the job you will have up to three years to file a claim.
This is good news so you are not in a huge rush to file when you initially get injured, BUT, keep in mind just being within the legal time frame of filing a claim does not always guarantee you compensation. The longer you wait to file your claim the more you risk the claim being denied and having to fight for the compensation that you deserve due to your injury or illness.
When we are working with those who have been injured on the job we always recommend that they report the injury as soon as it happens to a supervisor. This allows for the least amount of gray area to be drawn when compensation is being decided. If you wait for time to pass by there is more of a chance that your employer could deny the claim and the time between when the injury occurred and the reporting of the injury may be pointed to as a reason why the injury should not qualify for compensation.
The same is true for illnesses or diseases that are contracted while at work. While it can be harder to pinpoint when an illness occurred, it is important that once you see symptoms you report them immediately to your supervisor. Not only will reporting it to your supervisor help you with your claim, it will also allow you and your employer to take the necessary steps to ensure that your illness or disease, if contagious, does not cause an outbreak among your co-workers which could be a whole other headache for you and your employer.
While timeliness is not the only factor that is taken into account when an employer is deciding whether to deny your claim, it can certainly be used as justification for the denial. The longer you wait to file your claim the more likely you are to need representation to file your claim and fight for your compensation throughout the process.
If you become injured or ill from your work, you should report this in a timely manner to your supervisor. Once you have done that, you should seek medical attention and then finally you may need to speak with a Connecticut workers’ compensation attorney who can work with you to make sure you are compensated fairly for your injury or illness.
Our attorneys are board certified and would be happy to speak with you about your situation and work with you to protect your long-term interests.
