GETTING YOUR CLAIM STARTED

1. The law requires that you give written notice to your employer of your injury within 30 days of your accident, unless you have a reasonable excuse for not giving such notice. It should clearly set forth when, where and how your accident occurred, and recite the names of any witnesses or any supervisors to whom you gave verbal notice of your accident. Make sure you keep a copy of said notice, and if you cannot hand-deliver it, you should mail it to your employer certified return receipt requested. But, please note that before doing this, immediately after your injury, you should also have given clear verbal notice to your supervisors or whomever is authorized to receive accident reports at your workplace. It is best to give this verbal notice in the presence of a trusted witness. This provides further protection for you, because the employer cannot then claim lack of written notice as a defense if they were not prejudiced, i.e. they already knew about your injury because--- you told them right away.

2. When you are injured, the employer is required to file a form 19 http://www.ic.nc.gov/forms/form19.pdf with the Industrial Commission. This form sets forth the basic facts of the accident and also sets forth with your employer believes is your average weekly wage. If your employer does not provide you with a copy, you should request a copy from the Industrial Commission.

3. You should note that the filing by the employer of the form 19, or their payment of your medical bills, does not mean that you have fulfilled your obligation to file your claim in a timely fashion.

4. In order to protect your rights, you should file a form 18 http://www.ic.nc.gov/forms/form18.pdf no later than two years after the accident or two years from your last payment of compensation. Pay close attention to what your employers put down as your average weekly wage in their form 19. If you do not think it is accurate, you don't have to put down the figure they put on their form 19. Put down the gross amount of earnings you have been earning on a weekly basis stretching back over the past 52 weeks preceding your injury, including overtime, etc. If you have been employed less time than that, utilize the average weekly wage from the beginning of your employment with the defendant. Also, before filing, you should contact the Industrial Commission and find out if the claim has been assigned an IC number. You should utilize that number and place it in the upper right-hand corner of any forms and/or motions that you file from that point forward.

• 5. If steps one through four above have been accomplished, and your employer either will not refer you to their workers compensation carrier or, if it appears that the workers compensation carrier, through its adjuster, is "dragging its feet" and/or avoiding your calls in terms of getting your compensation and medical treatment started, there are several options for action:

• a. First and foremost, if you have been unable to obtain approval for treatment from the carrier,, and you are in severe pain and you require treatment on an emergency basis, you are permitted to seek such emergency care, and the employer is going to be required to pay for it, so long as you promptly seek approval from the Commission as soon as possible after treatment. One caveat: if the adjuster has advised you that they are going to or are denying your claim, you need to be aware that you may end up being responsible for the entire bill for emergency treatment, in the event that they do, in fact, have a valid defense which would bar your claim.

b. If you are having lingering pain and problems, and you still cannot get an answer from the carrier, then if you have a family physician who will see you for follow-up care, you may want to also see that doctor in order to obtain his recommendations and work restrictions. This is a very important step, because if you do not have any written work restrictions from a doctor, then you have no basis to obtain compensation. Again, you must promptly seek approval from The Commission as soon as possible after obtaining such treatment, in order to have the commission order your employer to pay for such treatment.

• c. If ‘a' and ‘b' have been accomplished, and your claim has not been explicitly denied by the carrier and/or employer through the filing by the employer of a form 61 , http://www.ic.nc.gov/forms/form61.pdf then your only other option is to file a motion for an expedited hearing relating to your medical treatment and/or compensation. If this is the situation you face, we encourage you to call our office to discuss allowing us to represent you in moving forward with your claim before the Industrial Commission. You should note that before proceeding with any motion or hearing, it is essential that you have full and complete copies of all of your medical records and bills relating to any treatment you have received for your injuries from the accident. These items will have to be attached to any motion, and your IC number should appear on each and every page.

• d. Even if your claim has been specifically denied by the employer and/or the workers compensation carrier, it may appear that on further close examination, they actually do not have a valid defense, and in that instance, if it appears that the evidence warrants moving forward, we would file to have your case heard before a Deputy Commissioner of the Industrial Commission. This would be accomplished by filing a form 33 http://www.ic.nc.gov/forms/form33.pdf with the Commission, and having your case docketed for hearing.

For more information relating to your potential claim, we encourage you to peruse our website and to give us a call, toll-free at 877-622-8656. If you haven't already, you should also visit the Industrial Commission's official website at http://www.ic.nc.gov/ .