accident report

Here’s how you can find out if your work injury was reported, and what you can do if you find out it wasn’t.

When you are injured at work, you are required to notify your employer, in writing, no later than 30 days after the accident, or after you’ve received a diagnosis (in case you have a workplace illness).

Then, you have little else to do other than await further instructions. Your employer is generally required to complete an injury report and file it with the Missouri Division of Workers Compensation, and the insurance company.

However, in some cases, the employer may fail to make a report, either intentionally or because of some oversight on their part. Here’s how you can find out if the injury was reported, and what you can do in case it wasn’t.

What Does the Law Say?

The employer or the insurance company should generally report your injury to the Missouri Division of Workers Compensation within 30 days after they become aware of your injury or illness. This is known as the First Report of Injury (FROI), and can be filed electronically with the Division.

The law also states that your employer should notify the insurance company of your condition within 5 days of the date on which you reported the injury or illness. If your employer doesn’t file the FROI, they may be facing a class A misdemeanor punishable by a fine up to $10,000. If they are on their second violation, it could be considered a class D felony.

What Can You Do to Check If Your Report Is Filed?

The Division encourages employees to contact them directly to find out if the injury report has been filed or not. They can give you more information if your employer is hard to reach or is not talking to you about your claim.

If your injury report has not been filed yet, and you are in need of medical treatment fast, you can talk to your employer and urge them to do it soon. It’s possible the report was not filed because of a small error, and your employer can quickly fix it and allow you to seek treatment.

If the employer is not responsive to your request, makes excuses, or tries to discourage you from pushing, the best thing you can do is to get in touch with a St. Louis worker’s compensation attorney as soon as possible. The unfortunate truth is that many employers do not want their workers to file a worker’s comp claim, as it could make their insurance premiums go up. Still, it is your right to access medical treatment for workplace injuries or illnesses, regardless of your employer’s preferences.

Speak With an Experienced Workers Comp Attorney ASAP

If you’ve been injured at work, it is in your best interests to speak with an experienced workers comp attorney as soon as possible to ensure your legal right to compensation is protect right from the start of your claim.

If you’ve discovered your employer did not file an injury report and is trying to delay the process, even more, don’t wait. Get in touch with a St. Louis worker’s comp lawyer as soon as possible to ensure your legal rights are protected.

One study estimates that around 1 in 10 U.S. workers do not report their injuries, leaving them to carry the burden alone.

Worker’s compensation is a great program for American workers. If you get injured on the job, you have the right to access medical treatment and get time off work without having to pay for it.

At its core, it’s an insurance policy. Your employer pays the premium, and their workers are insured. So why do many injured workers end up not filing an injury report to access these benefits? One study estimates that around 1 in 10 U.S. workers do not report their injuries, leaving them to carry the burden alone.

Why is that?

A Toxic Work Environment May be the Main Culprit

If you look at the data available, the most common reason injured workers cite for not reporting their injuries is fear of workplace retaliation. Simply put, they are afraid that speaking up and filing a worker’s compensation claim may get them fired.

Unfortunately, they may be right. Worker’s compensation claims specifically forbid firing an employee for filing such claims or taking time off for their treatments, but at the same time, Missouri has an at-will employment state. This means your employer can fire you for any cause, and they do not have to prove they had reason to fire you.

You cannot get fired for reasons that infringe on your civic rights, such as race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, but the burden is on you to prove your rights were infringed. This rule opens the door for an employer to fire workers on worker’s comp, and claiming other reasons. 

In the end, this boils down to a toxic work environment, in which workers feel that their employment is on the line. Some other ways in which this issue may present itself include:

• Being pressured to not file a claim, and proposing to cover medical costs some other ways.

• Telling the worker the accident is their fault, which in these cases is irrelevant. Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system, which means that even if the accident is your fault, you are still entitled to benefits.

• Using scare tactics to convince the employee not to file a claim. For instance, immigrant workers are often told that by filing a claim they may have legal troubles regarding their immigration status.

• Peer pressure, feeling like filing a claim may make your co-workers treat you differently.

• Not knowing your rights because nobody explained these benefits to you.

What Should You Do?

Worker’s compensation is a no-fault program meant to protect you. If you get injured at work, it is your right to file a worker’s comp claim and access these essential benefits.

If you feel like you can’t or are told not to, discuss this with a St. Louis worker’s compensation lawyer right away. They can help you navigate the process and protect your right to access compensation.

It is important to ensure that as many details regarding your injuries are recorded in the work injury report, regardless of how minor they may seem at the time.

Picture this: you were carrying some work tools when you tripped and hurt your knee. You filed a report with your employer and went to the doctor to get checked for your knee injury. A few days later, you start noticing intense pain and discomfort in your arm. As it turns out, you used your arms to ease the impact of your fall. You had a tingly sensation in your shoulder, but ignored it and focused on the part that was clearly affected by the injury: your knee. 

What can you do now? 

The Human Body Is a Complex Mechanism 

Everything in the human body is interconnected. A lower back injury can cause pain in your hips and legs as well. An injury in your left leg can affect your gait as well. This may cause you to move quicker than usual on your left foot, lurching frequently onto the right one. As a result, you may start noticing bursitis and pain in your right hip.

You may not feel any pain or discomfort at first, but you may start noticing the symptoms a few days later. That may be problematic if you neglected to include these pains in your work injury report.

Don’t Ignore Any Injury, No Matter How Small or Insignificant

One common mistake employees make when filing a work injury report is focusing on the big and evident pains and ignoring other parts of the body. However, if you want your workers’ compensation to account for all your medical expenses, then you need to include every bruise, pain, and swollen body part in the work injury report, no matter how small it may seem. 

As you’ve seen, different parts of the body are connected in ways you wouldn’t expect and an injury to your left ankle can eventually cause pain in your right leg. 

Of course, foreseeing how an injury may affect your body can be impossible for a person with no medical training. However, by describing the accident in detail and including every pain and bruise in the report, your doctor may make the connections and prescribe you the treatment that accounts for future conditions too. 

What If I Left Something Out?

It can be difficult to persuade the insurance company to pay for an injury that wasn’t documented. A medical report can show that your condition is related to the work injury, but you should expect some push back from the insurance company. 

If you’ve already agreed on a settlement and only now you start noticing new pains that you suspect may be related to your work injury, then you may be able to reopen your workers’ compensation case. 

If you’ve signed a full and final release of all claims, then you have waived your right to reopen your case. That’s why you should always speak with an experineced St. Louis workers compensation attorney before you accept any type of settlement.  In fact, it is a good idea to get in touch with them as soon as possible after you are injured.

A lawyer can help protect your legal right to compensation and help you ensure important details are not left out of your settlement agreement.

If you have been injured on the job, it is extremely important that you report your accident to your supervisor or employer as soon as possible.

After you get injured on the job, Missouri law states you must inform your employer in writing and mention the following details:

• Date, time and place of the injury
• The nature of the injury
• Your name and address

Your employer should have copies of the official form in their office, but if they don’t, you can use the online version here. Then, it is the employer’s responsibility to file the First Report of Injury with the Missouri Division of Workers Compensation.

Here is how the process generally goes.

What’s on You

By law, you are required to fill the official form within 30 days of your injuries. If you miss the mark, you may no longer be able to file for workers comp benefits.

The form contains all the relevant information you have to provide. Before you send in the form, you should make a copy of it for safekeeping, and keep a record of the date you mailed it. You also have the option of hand delivering the form to the employer, in which case you should also clearly record the date and time you handed it in, as well as the name of the person who received it.

Though on the form you don’t need to go into a lot of details about your injury or accident, there are some golden rules to consider:

• Don’t exaggerate your injury
• Be as specific as you can
• Tell the truth

This step is incredibly important, particularly in the event the form gets lost or your employer does not inform the division of your injury, which could potentially impact your benefits. You can call the Division directly to check if your injury has been reported.

What’s on Your Employer

Your employer generally must inform the worker’s comp insurance carrier within a maximum five days from the day of the injury if they are aware of it, or within five days of the date the worker reported the injury.

Then, the injury must be reported either by the employer or the insurance company to the Division within 30 days of gaining knowledge of the injury. This is called the ‘First Report of Injury’ which can be filed electronically.

As a worker, you can check if your injury has been reported to the Division sooner, but if the report is not sent within 30 days, you can inform the Division and they can step in to handle your claim.

Speak with an Experienced Workers Compensation Lawyer

If you have been injured at work, ensure your legal right to compensation is protected by getting in touch with St. Louis workers comp attorney as soon as possible. Small mistakes can hurt your claim and get it dismissed, and after that, it may be a lot more difficult to restart the process and get compensated. Give us a call 24/7 at (314) 361-4300 for a FREE case evaluation.