compensation claims

A worker with ADHD may have a higher risk of being injured, especially if they work in a dangerous environment.

Between you, your family, and your friends, you likely know somebody that has ADHD. As you might imagine, this condition can have a detrimental impact on employee safety.

Issues Associated With ADHD

You’ve likely heard of ADHD, but you may not know what issues it is associated with. The following are some of the most common.

• Difficulty paying attention to details. Sufferers often do not comprehend specifics at all, or they do, but forget quickly.
• Poor organizational skills, which leads to a cluttered mind and workspace.
• They lose their attention easily, either from distractions or daydreaming.
• Those that experience hyperactive symptoms often have physical issues such as squirming or fidgeting.

Now that you understand these issues, let’s discuss what problems they can lead to in the workplace.

Improper Training

One of the most important parts of starting a new job is training seminars. While people often dislike them, this educational content prevents many injuries. The reason is that it teaches people how to operate machinery and generally be safe at work. What happens when a person has ADHD is that they have trouble paying attention to training. The result can be a dangerous lack of knowledge about safety guidelines.

Distraction During Dangerous Tasks

Many jobs involve somewhat dangerous tasks. An example of one is a roofer climbing a ladder. The best way to avoid damages is to pay attention to what you’re doing, but ADHD can inhibit you from doing so. The possible result is an injury. The best way to avoid these injuries is by catching yourself when you start to drift off. Bringing yourself back to attention will increase your safety substantially.

Slips and Falls

Another area in which people with ADHD have trouble with is walking around their workplace. Depending on the nature of it, there may be objects on the ground that are easy to trip over. Those that are paying attention can avoid these traps, but distracted individuals are more likely to trip and fall.

Getting Behind

The last crucial outcome of ADHD is getting behind on your work. While this may not be hazardous, it can create a cascade of dangerous events. The reason is that those that are behind are more likely to rush through tasks. A person that is rushing is prone to skipping safety precautions and sustaining an injury as a result.

One thing that will make you rest a bit easier is that having ADHD generally cannot be used against you in the case of a workplace accident. Instead, you and your St. Louis workers compensation lawyer will be able to fight for your benefits just like any other employee. When you do, you will have an excellent chance at obtaining the compensation that you deserve.

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If you do these things, you will have a greater chance of having your case handling smoothly and in a timely fashion.

Getting into a lengthy legal process is usually not in your best interest. For this reason, getting through your workers’ compensation case quickly should be your second priority behind obtaining a fair benefits package. Fortunately, there are a variety of things that you can do that can help you streamline your claim and finish it quickly.

Report Your Injury Right Away

The first possible delay you could see in your workers’ compensation case is entirely your responsibility. If you wait to report your injury, you will set the process back. Additionally, doing so can weaken your chances of obtaining benefits altogether. For these reasons, your best bet is reporting as soon as you sustain an acute injury. In the event of slowly developing damage, notify your employer when you start to experience symptoms.

Write Everything Down

When you talk to your employer’s insurance company, lawyer, and doctor, they will all ask you a series of similar questions. Later in your claim, these same people will likely continue to ask you specific questions about your injury. If you write down all of the relevant information regarding your case, you will be able to answer them quickly and accurately. A few details to include are the nature of your injury, what time of day it happened, and the story behind it.

Follow the Doctor’s Orders

One thing that can derail a workers’ compensation case is an employee not following the doctor’s recommendations. Sometimes, employees suffer a delayed case and more time without benefits. Other times, their compensation is reduced or eliminated because they do not show devotion to improving their health.

Decide What Your Goals Are

When you make your claim, you should decide what exactly your goals are in your case. For some, that will mean settling quickly at a number that may be below their target. For others, they might want to fight the case until they get every penny they deserve. Either way, not knowing your goals will cause delays because you will not know what to do in many situations.

Communicate With Your Lawyer

Your attorney is there to guide you through your claim and negotiate in your behalf. If you choose an experienced lawyer, they will do just that. Of course, they need to know what you want before they can work towards getting it for you. Doing so is the next step after deciding what your goals are. Once your attorney understands what you want, they will operate on that knowledge until further notice.

Making your claim go by quickly comes down to responsibility and communication. In the early stages of your case, you should report your injury right away, write down all critical information, and start to follow your doctor’s recommendation. Later on, you can solidify your goals and tell your St. Louis work injury attorney how you want your case handled. If you do these things, you will have a greater chance of having your case handling smoothly and in a timely fashion.

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Even if you are in an industry where you aren’t entitled to workers’ compensation, there is still the possibility that you can make a personal injury claim.

Although in most cases Missouri employers are required to carry workers’ compensation, there are some industries and occupational arrangements that employers can have with an employee that mean they don’t have to carry the coverage. Occupations like seasonal or domestic workers, those who work offshore, and independent contractors are typically not covered by workers’ compensation; offshore workers are covered under a different system called the “Jones Act.”

If you are injured at work and you aren’t entitled to workers’ compensation, there might be times when you can receive compensation for your injuries, and other instances when they are your financial responsibility. If you have an arrangement that specifically excludes you from being eligible for workers’ compensation, then the only way to be compensated is if your employer was negligent and you make a personal injury claim against them. If you didn’t sign anything and you believe yourself to be an employee, but your employer is claiming otherwise, then you can speak with a St. Louis workers’ compensation attorney to learn more about your legal rights and options.

If you aren’t entitled to receive workers’ compensation, then the only way to be reimbursed for your injuries is if your employer was negligent in some way. Workers’ compensation coverage is not dependent on negligence, but personal injury is. So even if you are in an industry where you aren’t entitled to workers’ compensation, there is still the possibility that you can make a personal injury claim.

What You Would Need to Prove a Personal Injury Claim

Regardless of whether you were at work or not, if you were injured due to someone else’s negligence then you can sue them for personal injury. If you can prove that the injury you sustained was due to someone’s negligence, then you might be entitled to recover compensation. There are generally four things that you would have to prove to win a personal injury suit against your employer. You would need to show that:

• Your employer was aware of a condition that was the cause of your injury
• They should have reasonably foreseen that the condition could have led to an injury
• Your employer did not address the hazardous condition
• As a result, you were injured

If you can prove that there was negligence on your employer’s part, then you do not need to have workers’ compensation coverage. In fact, if you can prove that your employer’s negligence caused your injury or that the injury was intentional, you might be eligible to sue them for personal injury instead of making a workers’ compensation claim. The reason you might want to make a personal injury claim instead of collecting workers’ compensation is that you would be eligible to collect both economic and non-economic damages. For a workers’ compensation claim you can generally only receive economic damages.