[VIDEO] Do’s for Injured Workers: Secure Contact Info For Witnesses

[VIDEO] Do’s for Injured Workers: Secure Contact Info For Witnesses

The next thing you should do is secure contact information for witnesses that may have seen your accident. Anyone that you work with, coworkers, see if they can write something down for you. Just say, “I know you saw this happen, and saw the circumstances of my injury. Could you report that me, the injured worker, was doing so-and-so work activity and then complained of back pain (or shoulder pain or ankle pain or hand pain, etc)”.

The more people that saw the accident, the more chances that it’s going to be a claim that’s accepted; more chances that the insurance company will send you to a doctor for treatment and pay for it; more chances that you will receive the income benefit should you have to miss work.

This is information that is typically going to be placed on your incident report which brings us right back to why you want to have an incident report in the first place – You want to identify those people that would provide you information and provided the insurance company information to give them a reason to accept your claim and provide you the treatment that you need.

It doesn’t have to be a formal statement by someone as a witness you work with them (or your friends at work), but try to get something in writing and see if they’ll agree to sign it. Let them know it won’t affect their jobs initially. You’ll only use it if absolutely necessary. But it’s very good to have it while the information is current in their head – especially right after the accident so they can accurately represent what they saw versus asking them to make a statement some two to three weeks, or even two to three months, later. Contact us for more information.