Being an electrician can be a dangerous job as burns and electrocution are common injuries that electricians encounter in accidents. If you have been injured in an accident while working as an electrician and your injury requires treatment and time off work to recover, you may qualify for workers’ compensation. Your employer should have workers’ compensation insurance to cover its electricians and other workers who are injured or fall sick due to the job. A successful workers’ compensation claim will pay a certain percentage of your weekly wage, all of your medical treatment and any costs for rehabilitation which will allow you to go back to work to work as an electrician. What to Do Before Filing for Workers’ Compensation Depending on how serious your injury is following an accident, the first thing you should do is seek the appropriate medical treatment as soon as you are able to. Your next step is to report the accident to your supervisor or employer and the sooner you do this the better for you as it will speed up your WC settlement. If you are too slow to report the accident your employer may not believe that the accident took place while you were performing electrician’s work. Filing Your Workers’ Compensation Report As soon as your accident report has been acknowledged, your employer will get you to fill in a form. You must include with the form any documentation that supports that your accident took place while you were working as an electrician. This may include any of the following documentation: eye witnesses written accounts that support that the accident took place while you were at work; photos taken by you or other electricians who saw the accident occur; receipts for any medical treatment you have paid for already; video cam footage which clearly shows where and how the accident took place (if available); your physician’s diagnosis, treatment and expected recovery time. When the form filling has been completed and all the proof has been attached, you should hand it in to your employer who will forward it to its workers’ comp. insurer. If you don’t hear anything from your employer for a long time about your WC claim you may think about making contact with the workers’ comp. office that is closest to you. One of their officers will be given the responsibility to find out the progress of your WC claim and your employer will be contacted. After You File Your Workers’ Compensation Report Your employer’s WC insurer will not just accept your WC claim immediately and will likely conduct its own investigation before a decision regarding your WC claim is finally made. This typically may include evaluating the evidence you have provided which reinforced that the accident and injury occurred while you were working as an electrician. Often, WC claims are denied by insurers even based on what appears to be reliable evidence. If your WC claim has been denied, you must contact your local Workers' Compensation Appeals Board which will provide you with the opportunity of filing an appeal. When the hearing for your appeal takes place the judge appointed to hear it will make a decision and will inform your employer’s WC insurer. Contact a Workers’ Comp. Lawyer Because workers’ comp. claims are never that easy to win it is a good idea to seek help from an attorney who can help you get your claim on the right track. Additonal Resources What Might My WC Claim as an Injured Electrician Be Worth? Electricians and Workers Compensation
