People in Lakeland may be justified in their expectation of having access to workers’ compensation benefits should they experience a work-related illness or injury. After all, the law requires nearly all employers to provide some form of benefit to assist in these situations. Yet employees should also understand that they play a vital role in the workers’ compensation claim process beyond simply mandating the benefit; they need to learn the proper procedures to file a claim so that their employers’ insurance provider can either cover or reimburse them for their medical expenses.
These processes must be followed in order to obtain any sort of employment assistance in dealing with a work-related condition. This point was recently driven home in the case of a Tennessee man who filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the school district he had previously worked for. In his lawsuit, the man claimed that despite informing officials at the school that he worked at of the presence of mold in his classroom. No action was ever taken to remediate. He claims that his exposure to the mold caused him to develop illnesses that forced him to leave his job. The circuit court judge hearing his case ruled that his lawsuit should be thrown out, however, saying that instead of legal action, the man should have filed a workers’ compensation claim (which he never did).
It is understandable that those who are unfamiliar with the workers’ compensation claim process may not know the exact steps in filing a claim. Resources may be available to provide the necessary instruction. One such resource might be an attorney, and those needing workers’ compensation assistance might find such a professional’s knowledge and expertise beneficial in getting their claims covered.
