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A workplace injury can significantly disrupt your life, making it difficult or impossible to work and leaving you with medical bills. However, with the help of an experienced work injury lawyer serving New Stanton, you can seek compensation for your lost wages and medical expenses.
Contact Stine & Associates, P.C., for a free consultation with a highly qualified workplace injury attorney with over three decades of experience. During your consultation, Attorney Cindy Stine will walk you through what to expect from your case and the general timeline for recovering the compensation you need.
What Counts as a Workplace Injury in Pennsylvania?
Workplace injuries include both physical injuries sustained and illnesses acquired in the course and scope of employment. What that means is that if you sustain an injury while working, you may be able to file a workers’ compensation claim or personal injury lawsuit, depending on the specifics of the incident and your classification as a worker.
Examples of workplace injuries that our law firm can assist you with include:
- A delivery driver getting into a car accident
- A construction worker sustaining crushing injuries caused by unsafe machinery use
- A manufacturing plant worker exposed to hazardous materials, resulting in an occupational illness
Steps To Take After a Workplace Injury in New Stanton
If you were injured while working in New Stanton, taking the following steps can strengthen your case and prevent you from missing out on compensation you may otherwise be entitled to:
- Report the Injury: Always report the injury to your employer or manager as soon as possible. For workers’ compensation claims in PA, you must report the injury within 21 days to receive back pay for your missed work, and you must report within 120 days to recover compensation at all.
- Seek Medical Treatment: You should also seek immediate medical treatment and follow up with it until you have fully recovered. In workers’ compensation cases, you must receive non-emergency treatment from a medical provider on your employer’s approved physician list for the first 90 days.
- Collect Evidence: Gathering various types of evidence can significantly improve your chances of a successful case. These include accident scene photographs, photographs of your visible injuries, security camera footage, eyewitness statements, and medical records.
- Avoid Speaking to Insurers: If the at-fault party’s or your employer’s insurance provider contacts you for a statement, politely direct them to your attorney. The insurance adjuster’s job is to trick you into saying something that could harm your case.
- Consult a Work Injury Lawyer: The best way to strengthen your case is to speak with an experienced work injury lawyer. They can handle your case and deal with the insurance company, allowing you to focus on your recovery.
Common Workplace Injuries in New Stanton
Our law firm has experience handling a wide range of workplace accidents and injuries. Common injuries resulting from work accidents include:
- Repetitive Stress Injuries: These injuries often affect the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints. They develop over time as workers perform repetitive tasks, which can make it challenging to identify when the injury began.
- Back and Neck Injuries: Workers whose jobs involve lifting heavy objects, including construction, manufacturing, and warehouse workers, are at an increased risk of injuring their spinal cord and connected muscles. These injuries may cause chronic pain conditions.
- Slips, Trips, and Falls: Any worker can suffer from a slip, trip, or fall at work. Employers should provide safe work conditions, such as promptly cleaning up spills to prevent workers from slipping and injuring themselves.
- Crushing Injuries: Individuals working with heavy machinery and other heavy objects are at risk of severe crushing injuries, which could lead to amputations.
- Electrocutions: Construction workers and electricians may sustain electrocutions on the job. These injuries are particularly dangerous because they can damage internal organs.
- Burns: Burns may result from electrocutions, fires, smoke, or chemical exposure. The type and severity of the burn can affect your potential compensation.
Do You Qualify for Workers’ Compensation Benefits?
In Pennsylvania, the only workers who qualify for workers’ compensation benefits are employees. Workers’ compensation benefits are provided to injured employees regardless of who was at fault for the employee’s injury. In exchange, employees typically cannot sue their employers for injuries sustained at work.
If you are designated as an independent contractor, you generally do not qualify for workers’ compensation unless you can show that your employer misclassified you. However, that doesn’t mean independent contractors cannot seek compensation for their on-the-job injuries. They can still file personal injury lawsuits against the at-fault party or parties.
Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Benefits
If you qualify for workers’ compensation, the two main benefits you could receive through your claim are medical benefits and wage loss benefits.
- Medical Benefits: These benefits cover the reasonable and necessary medical expenses incurred for the treatment of your injuries, including surgeries, medical treatments, medical devices, and physical therapy.
- Wage Loss Benefits: These benefits provide approximately two-thirds of your pre-injury wages up to a maximum set annually by the state. Wage loss benefits typically continue to be paid until you fully recover from your injury, return to your pre-injury employment, or can perform another available job with no loss in earnings.
Pennsylvania workers’ comp also provides compensation for vocational rehabilitation. This provides you with education or training to help you obtain a new job that fits within your post-injury work restrictions.
Seeking Compensation as an Independent Contractor
While independent contractors cannot obtain workers’ compensation benefits, they also aren’t restricted from filing personal injury lawsuits against their employers. If you sustain an injury on the job as an independent contractor, you can file lawsuits against all at-fault parties, which may include your employer, equipment manufacturers, and other third parties.
Personal injury lawsuits are based on fault, unlike workers’ compensation claims. This means you must gather evidence showing how each party contributed to your injuries.
For example, if you were injured on a construction site, you may need to show that your employer didn’t enforce safety rules or that a piece of equipment had defects that made it inherently dangerous.
Additionally, you can seek compensation for pain and suffering through a personal injury lawsuit. Workers’ compensation does not pay benefits for these losses.
How Our Workplace Injury Lawyer Can Help With Your New Stanton Case
Our workplace injury lawyer can help with your New Stanton case by:
- Gathering crucial evidence connecting your injury to your work activity
- Identifying the liable parties in personal injury cases
- Calculating the value of your case based on your past medical expenses, expected future medical expenses, and lost wages
- Negotiating with your employer’s workers’ compensation insurer for a fair settlement in your case
- Taking your case to court if the insurance company refuses to provide the benefits you need or terminates your benefits prematurely
Whether you have a workers’ compensation claim, personal injury lawsuit, or both, our law firm is here to help maximize your compensation.
Contact Us Today To Get Started
If you were injured on the job in New Stanton, PA, contact Stine & Associates, P.C., for a free consultation about your case. Attorney Cindy Stine has been representing workplace injury victims for over 30 years and is committed to giving a voice to the injured, ill, and disabled.
During your initial consultation with our law firm, Attorney Stine will review your case, explain your options for seeking compensation, and answer any questions you have about workers’ compensation claims or personal injury lawsuits in Pennsylvania. Call us today.