Alabama Workers Compensation Questions: (5) My boss told me I waited too long to report my injury: NOTICE

Alabama Workers Compensation Questions: (5) My boss told me I waited too long to report my injury: What is NOTICE? To have a valid claim for workers’ comp benefits due to injuries sustained during an on-the-job injury, it is imperative that the injured worker provide proper notice of their work related injury to their employer.

Often times a worker is not sure if they have suffered a serious injury or just a sprain, so they do not report the injury (providing notice) at first, but only later file a workers’ compensation injury report when their pain refuses to go away. We have spoken to numerous people who have called our office after being told by their employer that they had waited too long to report/give notice of a job injury and therefore they are not entitled to any workers’ compensation benefits. This is rarely true.

While it is true that according to Ala.Code §25-5-78, an injured workers is supposed to provide written notice of a workplace injury within 5 days of the on-the-job injury, but this section goes on to state that, in Alabama, a worker has up to 90 days in which to inform his employer about a job injury. An oral report is just as valid a notice means as a detailed written report.

Company policy cannot override law, so if your employer states that “…company policy mandates that all workers’ compensation injuries be reported within 2 days of the occurrence of said injury and since you did not do so you are not eligible for workers’ compensation benefits ” (which several injured workers have called to tell us over the years)-they are lying to you.

Having stated this, it is always best to report a potential job injury as soon as possible.

If you have suffered a job injury and have been informed that you waited too long to report your injury, don’t give up. The experienced Alabama Workers Compensation Attorneys at Powell and Denny would be happy to speak with you about your claim.

Powell and Denny: We Work When You Can’t

Offices in Birmingham, AL and Huntsville, Alabama

Powell and Denny have been selected as one of the Best Law Firms by U.S. News and World Report for each of the last 5 years, have been selected as one of Birmingham’s Top Lawyers by B-Metro Magazine for the last 3 years and Powell and Denny, P.C.-has been selected as one of the “Best of the Best” law firms by The American Registry.

Alabama Workers’ Compensation Attorneys

Birmingham Workers’ Compensation Lawyers

Huntsville Workers’ Compensation Attorneys