Maison Law stands ready to help anyone injured in an accident while at work in San Jose. While workers’ compensation helps those hurt in accidents involving forklifts, not every victim is treated fairly. Not everyone receives the same amount of support. Our skilled attorneys fight to get injured workers the full compensation they need to recover physically and financially.
Contact us today for a free consultation to learn more about your options that may go beyond standard workers’ comp benefits. We can also help any worker secure Workers’ Compensation benefits regardless of their immigration or citizenship status.
Do I Need a Lawyer After a Forklift Accident?
Allowing a skilled San Jose Workers’ Compensation Lawyer to handle your Workers’ Comp claim may earn you much more for your claim. It’s the biggest reason why having a lawyer may be a good idea. A lawyer’s legal knowledge and experience will often help you identify benefits you may not have known about. A Lawyer also stands up for you when your employer and your employer’s Insurance Adjusters try to pressure you to accept blame for what happened or accept a “lowball” settlement offer.
If you suffer only a minor injury and are out of work for only a few days, you may not need legal help to get fair treatment from the Workers’ Compensation process. However, with a more serious injury, like those suffered when a powerful machine like a forklift is involved, the harm done can be long-term. The increasing medical bills cause Workers’ Compensation insurance adjusters to work harder to limit the support you take home.
The guidebook provided by The California Department of Industrial Relations (DIR) explains that you should consider hiring a lawyer in these and other situations:
- You believe your employer or the claims administrator is treating you unfairly or withholding benefits; or
- You have a permanent impairment/disability that limits you or causes pain; or
- You’re not sure how to proceed with your case, and no one else will help.
After an accident in the workplace, such as a factory, a packing plant, or a warehouse, you may feel completely healed only to end up feeling pain weeks or months later. Your lawyer makes sure you receive the support to help if you have a relapse that affects your ability to work again.
Forklift Accident Dangers in San Jose
Thousands of people are hurt in forklift accidents each year in the United States. Sadly, dozens are also killed annually.
San Jose and Santa Clara County serve as the base of operations for many national tech companies and manufacturers. It’s also a rich agricultural area. Business owners and CEOs look to turn profits, but their products, fruits and vegetables, and pallets don’t go anywhere without the hard work of forklift and order picker operators.
Drivers move quickly with heavy loads. They also work around powerful metal components and must operate under heavy items stored overhead. Unsafe conditions in a warehouse or plant can lead to an accident, a painful recovery, and weeks of job time missed.
These are some of the factors that can lead to scary forklift accidents in San Jose workspaces:
- Speeding forklift
- Unsafe turn and tip over
- Unbalanced load
- Overloaded forklift
- Collapsing stack of goods
- Broken pallet
- Distracted driver hitting object or pedestrian
- Stressed or exhausted driver making an error in judgment
- Improperly trained driver
- Improper maintenance on forklift
- A forklift manufacturing flaw
Forklift operators do their dangerous and strenuous jobs because it’s what their employers require to keep stock and inventory moving and their companies in business. Unfortunately, when accidents occur, owners and corporations can forget all that hard work and abandon injured workers. They may even look for ways to blame forklift drivers and fire them.
A Workers’ Compensation lawyer can shield San Jose victims from this type of treatment and hold companies fully accountable for the entire recovery period.
How Can a Workers’ Compensation Lawyer Help Me After an Accident?
A Maison Law attorney helps you get your full story across to a workers’ compensation judge. The judge will hear about every hardship you’ve been through, with each damage backed up with documentation and evidence. Judges can make mistakes, but they’ll be much more likely to extend a fair offer to you if they know the full story of the accident, the employer’s negligence, and the true extent of your injuries.
Unfortunately, employers and their Workers’ Comp insurance providers will work hard to deny responsibility and question the credibility of injured workers.
These are just a few of the ways your lawyer can protect you during a Workers’ Compensation hearing:
- Protects the victim’s rights
- Investigate the cause of the accident and the employer’s record
- Collect evidence such as important documents, witness testimony, and surveillance video
- Keep track of deadlines
- Files the victim’s claim correctly and list all hardships to be compensated
- Represent the victim before a workers’ compensation judge
- Negotiate for the maximum support available based on similar past cases
- Makes sure victims receive every benefit available
- Protects victims from retaliation
- Protects victims if they are fired unjustly after an injury
- Files an appeal if a Worker’s Compensation claim is rejected unfairly
- Handles this entire frustrating process while the victim is allowed to focus on healing
Frequently Asked Questions
When should I tell my supervisor about my injury?
Let your employer or a manager know immediately about any injury. If you wait longer than a month to alert your manager it may allow your employer to refuse Workers’ Compensation assistance.
How long can I wait to file a California Workers’ Compensation injury claim?
As seen above, injured workers should report their injuries to their employers as soon as possible. Then they usually have up to one year from the date of the accident to file a claim with California’s Division of Workers’ Compensation. In some cases, the one-year deadline counts down from the day the worker learns of an injury or illness. The deadline could be extended if the victim is under the age of 18.
What kinds of things can injured workers earn support for?
Victims should fight to get all past, present, and future medical bills covered. They could seek temporary or permanent disability benefits. Injured workers should get money to help pay for an education or training to enter a new career if they can no longer go back to their old jobs. Families should receive death benefits if a loved one has been taken from them after an on-the-job accident.
Contact a Santa Clara County Forklift Injury Workers’ Compensation Lawyer
Forklift drivers who are hurt in the workplace should never be afraid to speak up. They’ve hurt themselves while sacrificing their safety and physical wellbeing for their companies, and those companies must be there for them now that they are hurt.
Speak to Maison Law in a free consultation. We want to hear about what happened to you and then help you determine the best course of action for your family. We also want to make sure you earn the maximum in benefits for your family while you are down with an injury.
If you do need us to earn more for your claim, Maison Law’s San Jose Workers’ Compensation Lawyer works on a contingency basis. We don’t get paid unless we win your case for you. There’s zero upfront cost. Then our attorney’s fee comes out of the award you receive.
