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If you or somebody you love has sustained a workplace injury or illness, you should be able to recover compensation for your medical expenses and a major portion of your lost wages if you cannot work. However, workplace injury and illness victims must file their claims promptly in order to ensure they receive the compensation they deserve. Here, we want to discuss two deadlines you should be aware of in these situations. The first has to do with reporting the injury after it happens or after a diagnosis is made, and the other has to do with the overall statute of limitations for a work injury claim in Las Vegas.
The first deadline work injury victims need to be aware of pertains to notifying an employer about the incident. In order to ensure the smooth processing of a workers’ compensation claim, individuals who sustain a workplace injury or have been diagnosed with an occupational disease or illness have seven days to notify their employer. This seven-day clock begins ticking from the moment the injury occurs or from when a person receives a diagnosis that they have an occupational disease or illness.
In order to erase any doubt about whether or not an injured employee reported the injury on time, we encourage individuals to notify their employer the same day the injury occurs or the diagnosis is received.
In Nevada, the statute of limitations to file a workers’ compensation claim is 90 days from the date the incident occurs or from the date a person receives a diagnosis of an occupational disease or illness. Individuals who wait too long to file their claim with the insurance carrier could lose the ability to recover any compensation for their losses.
In some cases, individuals may be able to file a personal injury lawsuit against a party involved in the workplace injury or illness. Even though workers’ compensation claims are generally considered no-fault and, thus, prevent individuals from filing lawsuits against their employer, there are times when third parties are involved in the incident. This opens the door to the injury victim filing a separate personal injury lawsuit against the other entity.
In situations where a personal injury lawsuit is an option, the injury victim has two years from the date the injury occurs to file their claim against the alleged negligent party. Failing to file a lawsuit within this time frame will likely result in the individual becoming unable to recover compensation.
Even though most work injury claims in Las Vegas are relatively straightforward, there are times when insurance carriers or employers put up a fight against having to pay out fair compensation to an injured employee. We encourage any workplace injury victim to reach out to a Las Vegas workers’ compensation lawyer for a free consultation of their claim. An attorney can examine the facts of your case and help you understand the best steps moving forward for your claim, and they can push back against difficult insurance carriers or employers.