If you were hit by a forklift or were injured during a rollover, you might have serious injuries. Broken bones, head trauma, or even the rare impalement injury can leave you unable to work and facing expensive medical bills.
Our attorneys can file claims to get your injuries covered. Workers’ Comp can pay for medical bills and a portion of lost wages without the need to prove fault. This means you can recover even if you caused the accident. And if someone else caused it, we can potentially sue them for additional damage.
Contact our forklift accident lawyers at Cardamone Law at (267) 651-7945 today for a free case review.
What to Do After a Forklift Accident
After your accident, take the following steps:
Get Medical Attention
You need to get immediate medical attention for serious injuries. This not only gets you on the path to recovery, but it also documents your injuries and helps you prove they were work-related. This is important for a Workers’ Compensation claim.
Report Your Accident
Workers must report injuries to their employers within 21 days of the accident. Do not presume that your employer already knows about it.
Call a Lawyer
After that, call our forklift accident attorneys. Do not try to handle your case on your own.
Await Decisions from Insurance
While you wait for the insurance company to decide your claim, keep getting medical care with approved providers for the first 90 days and focus on getting better.
File a Claim Petition
If they deny your claim, you can file a Claim Petition with the Workers’ Comp Office of Adjudication. This puts the case before a Workers’ Comp Judge to decide.
Continue Your Claim
Our lawyers can help you gather evidence, deal with IMEs (independent medical exams), and take the case to a hearing. We can also work towards a settlement through negotiations.
Decision and Settlement
Either the judge will decide the case, or we will reach a settlement agreement with your employer to end the case amicably. In either case, the goal is to get your benefits paid.
If your healing has already progressed, we may also be able to settle after winning, getting benefits paid in a lump sum instead of over time.
File a Potential Lawsuit
From there, if someone else was at fault, we can file a lawsuit. This can get you and your employer paid back for the money spent and wages lost. It can also pay benefits Workers’ Comp does not pay, like pain and suffering.
Benefits from Workers’ Comp
Workers’ Comp focuses on these three areas of benefits. To get any additional benefits – such as pain and suffering – you would have to file a lawsuit.
Medical Benefits
Medical care can be expensive, especially if you have serious injuries like brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, or even amputation. Rollover injuries on a forklift have the potential to cause permanent injuries you need treated.
Medical benefits are paid directly to the provider as they arise, unless your case settles. In that case, you get the money to pay for future care.
Wage-Loss Benefits
If you do suffer serious or permanent injuries, you could be out of work for a long time. Workers’ Comp pays about 2/3 of your lost wages while you are unable to work, or it covers 2/3 of the difference if you can work a bit.
This has limits at the statewide average weekly wage and floors at half that or 90% of your pre-injury wage, whichever value is lower.
Specific Loss Benefits
If you faced any of these permanent injuries, you get additional benefits:
- Amputation
- Total lost function
- Vision loss
- Hearing loss
- Serious facial scars.
Some of these injuries seem unlikely in a forklift accident, but they are possible. Talk to a lawyer about how long they last, since the duration is different for each injury.
Damages from a Lawsuit
In a lawsuit, you can receive some of the same damages you get from Workers’ Comp, plus additional damages it does not cover:
- Medical expenses
- Full lost wages
- Future lost earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Other non-economic damages
- Other economic damages.
What if You Recover Twice (Workers’ Comp and a Lawsuit)?
In many cases, you can file a Workers’ Compensation claim and then also file a lawsuit against the at-fault party. This means your employer – who was not actually at fault – pays your benefits first, then the at-fault party would pay again.
If damages overlap, you cannot keep double damages. Instead, you pay back your employer for the amounts they already paid. You get to keep the rest (minus the costs of litigation and attorney’s fees).
How Long Do You Have to File a Workers’ Compensation Claim?
Workers’ Comp cases have to be “filed” by reporting your injury to your employer within 21 days of the accident. If you miss this date, you must get the report in within 120 days of the accident, or else your claim is blocked.
After denial, you get up to 3 years from the injury date to file a Claim Petition.
How Long Do You Have to File a Lawsuit?
The deadline to file most injury lawsuits in Pennsylvania is 2 years.
Can You Sue Your Employer?
Usually, no. You cannot sue your employer for a work-related accident unless they injured you intentionally or failed to have insurance.
Can You Sue Your Coworkers?
Usually, no. Your coworkers are essentially considered an extension of your employer. Since you cannot sue your employer, you cannot sue your coworkers either.
However, if you work with people who are not under your same employer, they are not technically your “coworkers” at all, and you may be able to sue them. This often gets into tricky classification issues with contractors, subcontractors, and employers.
Call Our Forklift Accident Lawyers in Bensalem Today
Call (267) 651-7945 for a free case evaluation with the Certified Pennsylvania Workers’ Compensation Specialists at Cardamone Law.
