No matter how conscientious and cautious you are about observing safety rules on the job, the potential for injury on the job is ever-present due to a wide array factors.
Serious workplace injuries often are life-altering and can affect the injured party’s quality of living for months, if not forever. While worker compensation payments can offset some of the lost wages while an employee is recovering from an injury, they usually do not begin to cover the true costs of a workplace accident, especially in the event of serious physical issues. With sixty years of combined experience, Friedman and Martin, Personal Injury Attorneys, help maximize the benefits you are entitled to. We examine every case carefully, ensuring all negligent parties — not just your direct employer — are held accountable for what they did or failed to do.
Some of the most common workplace accidents include:
• Falling from Heights. These may occur from falling off cranes, ladders and scaffolding.
• Falling and Moving Objects. This can happen in an office setting or a construction site. However, any heavy object can pose a workplace hazard.
• If employees overexert, it can result in injury, this is covered under the law.
• Vehicle accidents. Employees can experience work-related auto accidents.
• Equipment/Tools/Machinery Entanglement. A careless operator of heavy or hazardous machinery can cause serious injury to himself/herself or to fellow workers on site.
Other possible work injuries include:
• Burns, skin diseases and disorders
• Electric shocks
• Eye injury, including vision impairment or blindness
• Hearing impairment or loss
• Broken bones
• Respiratory conditions
• Knee and ankle injuries/neck, shoulder, or back injuries
In Georgia, the benefits you can get if you have only a worker’s compensation case are set by law and include monetary benefits and medical benefits. If your employer had three or more full or part time employees, then your employer is required to have worker’s compensation insurance coverage to cover your injuries. You are entitled to get medical care from a posted panel of medical providers that is on display at your job site. Also you are entitled to wage benefits if your doctor says you can’t work. In order to get worker’s compensation wage benefits, you have to be out of work for a certain period of time before you can get your wage benefits. Your employer is also required to pay for your mileage to and from the doctor for your doctor visits, so you should keep a log of your trips to the doctor and the mileage each way.
Wage benefits are set by law, and you can get 2/3 of your average weekly wage for weekly benefits, up to the maximum amount. If your earnings entitle you to the maximum amount, you cannot get more than that amount. If your doctor releases you to return to work, and you go back earning less than you earned before you were hurt, you are also entitled to 2/3 of the difference in pay of what you were making before you were hurt and what you are making when you go back to work earning less. This benefit is limited to a maximum also. Your medical benefits have to be paid in full, so you should not have to pay any medical bills as long as you are being treated by an authorized treating physician. You should make sure at the start of your medical care that you are being treated by an authorized treating doctor that is listed on the posted panel of doctors at your place of work.