What do I need to know as a construction worker if I’m injured on the job?

Well, if you are injured on the job, there are a few very important things that you need to know:

1) First, if you are injured, you want to seek medical treatment. This way, the injury is documented as being a result from the accident. The longer you wait to treat, the more chances are that somebody may dispute that the injury wasn’t caused by the accident. It’s also important, even if the injury seems minor at the time, to treat so that the injury is documented if it develops into a more serious injury over time.

2) The next thing that you need to do, even before seeking medical treatment if you’re able to do so, is report the accident. Make sure that the accident is documented. Create an accident report.

3) Next, if there’s any witnesses to the accident, get their information. So when you do contact an attorney, you can let them know so and so witnessed the accident. He’ll be able to tell you and corroborate my story of exactly what happened.

Also, being on a construction site, if it’s a defective condition or there’s something wrong that causes the accident on the site, you want to make sure that’s documented as well. Everybody has a cell phone now. The cell phones that pretty much everybody has can take video or at least pictures. It’s important that the defective condition is documented by either photographs or video if able to do so. Because we all know that on a construction site, the area is constantly changing. Things are being moved, debris is being cleaned up, you know, defective conditions can be changed every few minutes.

4) Finally, don’t speak with insurance companies. They’re going to call you, they’re going to pretend they have your best interests in mind. They don’t. They work for, what would be, or maybe the defendants and their job is to minimize their exposure to the liability.

And finally, you want to contact an attorney that specializes in construction-related accidents as soon as possible to make sure that the proper steps are taken, that you’re represented accordingly.