Car Accidents that Cause Work Injuries Later
If you have been injured on the job in a car accident, you may file either a workers’ compensation claim or a personal injury lawsuit, or both. depending on the circumstances. The Denver personal injury attorneys at The Frickey Law Firm can help you assess your legal options. At the Frickey Law Firm, we have attorneys that specialize in both workers compensation and personal injury, filing both claims often entitles you to a better financial recovery.
If your injuries developed in the days or weeks subsequent to the crash, you can still pursue a workers’ compensation claim, even if you were at fault for the accident. What is important is that you remain vigilant to detect any injuries as soon as you feel symptoms and report the injury to your employer as soon as you learn of it.
The experienced Lakewood personal injury lawyers at The Frickey Law Firm can advise you about how to proceed and can fight to make your entitlement to compensation a reality. Given the tight timelines associated with workers’ compensation cases, you must contact an attorney immediately. Call us today at 303-237-7373 to talk to a lawyer. The call is free and knowledge is power.
Car Accident Injuries May Take Time to Show Symptoms
Car accident injuries are not always apparent at the scene. In many cases, you may begin to feel pain and discomfort in the days or weeks after the accident. Whiplash is a common delayed reaction injury that car accident victims suffer. Here, the initial adrenaline of the accident may mask your symptoms. It may not be until after everything has settled down that you begin to feel pain. Other delayed car accident injuries can include:
- Soft tissue injuries
- Herniated discs
- Traumatic brain injuries/concussions
- Nerve impingement
- Chronic pain syndromes
You may be legally entitled to compensation for your car accident injuries, regardless of when they arose, so long as you follow proper procedure. If there was a third party who was to blame for the car accident, you can file a personal injury claim. Even if you cannot prove someone else’s fault, you are eligible for workers compensation benefits.
Why You Should Seek Immediate Medical Care After a Work Car Accident
You should always seek medical care as soon as possible after a car accident if there is even a possibility that you have been injured. When it comes to timelines, such as claim notification deadlines or statutes of limitations, they typically begin to run on the date that you should have known that you were injured. Accordingly, you must be as vigilant as possible about your own health, so you are not accused of missing any deadlines or failing to mitigate your own damages.
Seeking medical care in close temporal proximity to the accident can also help document causation. if you wait too long to see a doctor, the insurance company may argue that your injuries were the result of something else, whether it is a pre-existing condition or another medical issue. this is a common defense in workers compensation cases, especially when you did not suffer the injury at the same exact time of the accident.
You Can File a Workers’ Comp Claim Now and a Personal Injury Lawsuit Later
You may seek workers’ compensation benefits, so you have money to cover medical expenses and lost wages until you are paid in a car accident settlement. Regardless of how you choose to pursue compensation, you should notify your employer as soon as you notice any symptoms of the injury. Colorado law requires that you give notice to your employer of any injury that happened on the job within ten working days. Of course, that may be difficult if you do not know at the time that you have been injured. Nevertheless, you should at least preserve the possibility of filing a workers’ compensation claim, and you would do so by giving timely notice to your employer. If you are working and injured in a car accident, contact a lawyer.
Delayed Injuries Can Complicate Your Return to Work
Your employer may challenge your workers compensation claim for a delayed injury. They will often claim that you should have known that you were hurt earlier, and you did not act in time. You may also face difficulties if you have been told to return to work, and then the symptoms either appear or worsen after that point. You may have suffered initial injuries in the accident, but the results of an independent medical examination were such that you were directed to report back to work on modified duty. In the example of whiplash cited above, your condition could be degenerative. Insurance companies often deny claims for no legitimate reason in the hopes that you will just go away and not seek benefits that you are entitled to by law. Get an attorney to fight for your benefits and maximize your ultimate payout.
The independent medical examination may not have even been wrong when the doctor reached the conclusion that you could work on light duty. however, as your delayed injury becomes even more apparent, it may require a reevaluation of your condition and your ability to work at all. this scenario will lead to push back from the insurance company, which wants to do everything in its power to take your claim off its books. Insurance companies hire doctors to say that you are not injured and that you can work. If you have been injured, get a lawyer, fight back, hire your own medical expert to build your case and prove the true extent of your damages and injuries.
Contact a Personal Injury Law Firm in Colorado
If you have been injured in a work-related car accident, you need a lawyer who can immediately evaluate and explain your legal options. Schedule a free initial consultation with a Colorado personal injury attorney at The Frickey Law Firm by filling out an online contact form or by calling us today at 303-237-7373.
Attorney Janet Frickey wants to do the right thing. An impassioned litigator and client advocate for more than 40 years, Ms. Frickey is the owner and managing attorney of The Frickey Law Firm who focuses in workers’ compensation and personal injury. Learn more here.