What To Do If You Are Injured At Work

1. Report the injury immediately or as soon as possible to a supervisor or some other person in charge.  Reporting the injury to a co-worker is not sufficient under California case law.
2. Request a claim form (DWC-1) as soon as possible.  Keep a copy for yourself. 
3. If the employer refuses to provide a claim form, send the employer a letter by certified mail return receipt or hand deliver the letter to the employer and write down a note of the date, time, and the name of the person to whom you delivered the letter.  The letter should indicate the date of your injury, and the parts of the body injured.
4. Get the names and telephone numbers of any witnesses if possible.  Many times, witnesses will be co-workers and may not be willing to cooperate for fear of losing their job.
5. Get medical treatment as soon as possible after the injury occurs.  If your employer refuses to provide treatment, go to an emergency room such as Olive View, High Desert Medical Center, County USC, Riverside Community, or Arrowhead Regional as soon as possible.  You can go to any medical provider such as a walk in clinic.  Be sure to tell the doctor that your injury occurred at work.  It is important that you give a correct and complete injury of the injury.  Also, it is important to tell the first doctor(s) you treat with all of your symptoms.  It is difficult to add other body parts to a claim if there are no complaints of pain close in time to the injury in many cases.
6. POST TERMINATION WARNING - Under California law, no compensation or medical treatment is allowed for a workers' compensation claim that is reported after the termination of employment or notice of termination of employment subject to certain limited exceptions.  REPORT YOUR INJURY BEFORE YOU ARE TERMINATED BY YOUR EMPLOYER OR YOU WILL LIKELY LOOSE YOUR RIGHTS UNDER THE WORKERS COMPENSATION LAWS.
7. If your injury is likely to result in either permanent impairment or an inability to do the job you had when you were injured, you should my office at 1-877-322-3714.

In many cases, you will not know if your have permanent impairment until a month or two after your injury.  A good rule is to give treatment a chance to work for 30 days.  If you are not better and have not returned to work, there is a reasonable chance that you will have permanent impairment and possible diminished future earnings capacity.  Call my office at 1-877-322-3714.