Anyone who works in the fast food industry may be injured while at work. Typical injuries are burns, scalds, amputations of fingers, broken limbs, cuts and bruises and other injuries if a slip and fall occurs. Like other big employers, fast food restaurants should have workers’ compensation (WC) insurance to protect you as an employee if you are genuinely injured or become sick while at work. WC insurance is no-fault insurance. Even if you were to blame for an injury, as long as you didn’t do it deliberately, you should still be able to obtain compensation. Insurers are never keen to pay out compensation of any type, so you may be forced to file an appeal if you cannot resolve a disagreement about a claim you have made. You may find it advisable to use an experienced WC lawyer to provide legal help with an appeal. Contact A Fast Food Restaurants Insurance Company Insurers don’t always provide details of why they have denied a claim. If you do get a negative decision sent to you without details of why this decision has been made, you should contact the insurers directly. It is common for insurers to say they have not been given any details from your own insurer or there is a discrepancy in dates. Insurers are most likely to deny a claim because they think that an injury happened somewhere else and not while at work. You may provide some more convincing evidence that the accident happened while at work in the restaurant e.g. statements from fellow workers, or at least make sure that the accident was recorded officially by your employer and that the correct date was passed on to fast food restaurants insurer. File Your Fast Food Restaurants Workers’ Comp. Appeal If all else fails, you are entitled to file a workers’ compensation denied claim appeal. This has to be done through your state’s WC machinery and not with the insurer directly. Every state has some sort of established procedure for WC disputes. The first step is to go through mediation, often before an appeal is actually filed. Mediators appointed by the state WC agency try and help the disputing parties come to an agreement. When there has been a simple reason why a claim was denied, yet this wasn’t accepted earlier, mediation may help to get the original claim on the path to acceptance once again. Mediation doesn’t always work and then the next step is for an administrative review or hearing. An administrative judge is appointed to listen to both sides give their reasons for or against a claim being accepted. The judge’s decision about the claim is meant to be the final step, but in practice you may dispute the judge’s decision and then take the whole matter to the state’s Appeals Court. A Workers’ Compensation Attorney Can Help File an Appeal The decision to file an appeal shouldn’t be taken lightly. It’s not an easy step to take and you are advised to have legal help throughout. A WC lawyer can help you prepare your case clearly and be with you when mediation and hearings take place. Additional Resources Can I Get Compensated if I Was Hurt Working at El Pollo Loco? Disclaimer: The content of this article serves only to provide information and should not be construed as legal advice. If you file a claim against El Pollo Loco, or any other party, you may not be entitled to any compensation.
