Steps to Take After a Construction Accident

Answer:

I’m often asked what you should do when you’ve been seriously injured at a construction site. Here’s what I think. In Wyoming, what you need to do is, first of all, get medical care. That’s the most important thing. I’ve seen situations in serious construction cases where people haven’t gone right to the doctor. I had a case where a fellow had a brain injury, and he was reluctant to go to a doctor. Also, his judgement was cloudy because he had been injured, and so therefore, he didn’t go to seek medical care right away. Of course, later on that was used against us. We were able to prevail in the case. In front of a jury, we tried that case successfully.

Of course, that was always the question. Why didn’t he go to the doctor? Why wait? Oftentimes, in construction cases, the employer will say, oh, don’t go to a doctor right away, or they’ll say go to our doctor. Don’t turn this into workers’ compensation because it affects our rate for future jobs. We don’t want that to occur. I’ve seen that happen. You want to get medical care right away. You want to get good competent medical care in the area that you were injured in. If you had a brain injury, for example, you need to see a neurologist, or nurse, or somebody that’s competent in that area. If it’s an orthopedic injury to your back, you need to see that kind of doctor.

Sometimes it’s a mix of all those things. You need to see all those kinds of doctors. I think you should turn that into workers’ compensation every time, especially if it’s a serious injury or anything that is possibly a serious injury. Sometimes, you don’t know right away. Turn that into workers’ compensation because we can work with workers’ compensation on what we have to pay them back later on. It also looks like a legitimate claim, and it’s documented if it’s with workers’ compensation. It’s honestly documented, and that’s something that we need in these kinds of cases. Don’t let an employer talk you into not turning these into workers’ compensation right away. Go to a doctor right away if you’ve got serious injuries of any kind. If you need hospitalization, certainly do that. If you have other questions like this, feel free to call my office, I’m glad to help.