In any business industry, accidents and injuries are inescapable at times. Especially if you’re company is in the construction industry, you might face different kinds of personal injury claims from your employees due to incidents on site.
As the company owner/manager, you need every help you can get, especially when it comes to personal injury attorney. Hence, you need to be well-versed on what you should do when an employee makes this type of claim.
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What Is A Personal Injury Claim?
Personal injury claims from employees arise when a worker falls into an accident or injury while doing their work under the responsibility of a company. Legally, the injured person can be entitled to reimbursements on medical expenses and any other material damages.
The claim is formalized by bringing in lawyers that specialize in personal injury claims. When calculating compensation, your HR personnel need to be present so you’ll be prepared for any claims that may arise.
What You Should Do When An Employee Makes One?
Since accidents can’t be avoided, the best you can do is knowing how to act on personal injury claims. Here are some of the things you should do when you encounter situations like these.
- Have Employee File A Report
The first thing you should do when there’s an accident at work is to ask your employee to file a report. From this report, you’ll be given a better picture of what happened and what your employee is going to claim from the company. Doing so will also help you gauge your next steps of action.
Reports filed regarding personal injury claims also need to be uniform for all employees. That’s why your HR needs to craft a procedure manual and template for reporting incidents wherein the employee needs to make a personal injury claim.
- Verify Validity
Employers are obligated by law to not only have the necessary equipment to treat injuries, but they also have the responsibility to support any financial expenses that arise from that accident. Take note that personal injury claims can be expensive. Because of this, you should always check the validity of the claims before proceeding with anything else.
You can check the validity of an accident by getting proof from your employee on the events that transpired. Make sure that you verify all the events. It’s your employee’s responsibility to provide proof that the company is responsible for the injury.
Proofs can be in the form of videos or pictures during the incident. Your employee can also take statements from people who witnessed the incident.
Be thorough with the investigations. Collect all the documentation related to the accident and check every piece of evidence. In addition, if you have CCTV cameras around your building, you need to check these as well to verify if what your employees are saying is the truth.
Once this is verified and duly investigated, you can proceed with the next steps.
- Crunch Some Numbers
As an employer, the next thing that you need to is to crunch the numbers; find out how much the personal injury claim will cost the company. Take into account all the medical expenses that your employee shouldered. On top of that, the employee might even ask for additional money to cover for emotional distress and other losses. So, you must also take those things into account when doing initial computations.
Once you have an estimate, it’s best to show these to your company’s personal injury lawyer.
- Meet With Your Lawyers
For accident-prone industries, your company needs to hire in-house lawyers who specialize in personal injury claims. This is because there will be a lot of laws involved in a personal injury claim, depending on the intricacies of the events that transpired and the level of injury caused
You’ll need a lawyer on your side that specializes in these kinds of cases so that they’ll be well-versed in navigating through the situation. The lawyer will also prevent your company from getting more lawsuits. In addition, personal injury lawyers can shield you from taking additional risks and finding the best solution to settle with your employee.
- Get The Right Kind Of Insurance
Fortunately, there’s a kind of insurance that services personal injury claims when it happens within company premises or during a company-related event. This is usually called a Group Life and Personal Accident Insurance. This will usually cover all expenses that may be incurred by your company if an employee files for a personal injury claim.
Take note that this will result in an additional annual expense on the premium paid. However, the benefits of this will be very advantageous for your company. The costs you’ll save will be more than the premium you’ll be paying every year. As said by many, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.
- Learn From Experience
Learn from this incident so that you can prevent more of it from happening and paying hefty fees for personal injury claims. Be more efficient and effective by studying the incident and find ways to prevent it from occurring again. If it can be avoided, make every possible step to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.
For instance, your ceiling has a leak, causing water puddles on the floor. Then, while in a hurry to go to the next meeting, your employee slips on the puddle of water and falls to the ground. When they fall, they injure their leg, leading to a fracture. This kind of scenario will be eligible for a personal injury claim.
To prevent this from happening again, start fixing the leak on your ceiling at once. Don’t wait for it to get worse or someone else to experience the same accident.
Conclusion
If, one day, your employee approaches you and makes a personal injury claim, you’ll know how to react and what to do. During situations like these, you need to be cautious about the words you use and your emotions as well. Every step you make is very critical and important, so make sure you don’t miss any details.
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