First, report your injury to a supervisor, manager, or human resources. Whoever you report your injury to should help you fill out a First Report of Injury, which can be found on the Department of Labor and Industry’s website.

In some cases, it is not feasible to report your injury immediately. For instance, a person who is rushed immediately from the job site to the emergency room via ambulance will not be able to fill out the forms right away.

In other cases, sometimes injured workers don’t know exactly when they suffered injury because the injury happens over the course of days, weeks, months or years. This is common with repetitive motion injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome or a degenerative injury to the spine due to overuse. In Minnesota workers’ compensation, this is called a Gillette injury.

If you have a Gillette injury, you should report it as soon as you develop symptoms, and you have reason to believe that they were caused by your work activities. This often occurs the first time an injured worker seeks medical treatment.

Once your medical condition is stable and the paperwork process has been initiated, call the Law Office of Kristen Gyolai for further assistance.

Call The Law Office of Kristen Gyolai as soon as possible. If your claim is denied, that means the workers’ compensation insurance company is not going to pay a penny toward your medical care or wage loss until a workers’ compensation judge tells them that they have to.

Furthermore, to get a judge to make that determination, you must initiate litigation against the workers’ compensation insurer and go through a complex information-gathering process called discovery. The workers’ compensation insurance company will have an attorney on their side during this process. You should, too.

If you receive a Notice of Intention to Discontinue Benefits (NOID) in the mail, contact The Law Office of Kristen Gyolai right away. If you disagree with the workers’ compensation insurance company’s decision to discontinue your benefits, you only have a certain amount of time to request a conference in front of a judge regarding that decision.

Minnesota law allows a workers’ compensation insurer to have an injured employee seen by a doctor of their own choosing. The insurance companies and the law refer to these types of exams as “independent,” but they are not. It seems that no matter what your doctor’s medical reports state, the “independent exam” invariably finds that there is little or nothing wrong with you. Insurance companies deliberately seek out doctors who are sympathetic to the insurance companies to perform the “independent exams.” If you have been scheduled for an IME, it is probably because the workers’ compensation insurer is looking for a reason to deny your benefits. You should contact an attorney immediately.

Likely, there will come a time when the insurance company will deny medical treatment, stop paying your wage loss, or otherwise give you reason to believe they don’t have your best interests in mind. Remember: they don’t.

Having an attorney on your side from the beginning means that when that day comes, you are ready to fight back. There will also be fewer delays in the final resolution. Hiring an attorney doesn’t mean that you are money hungry or out to get anyone, including your employer. It means you care enough about yourself and your family to ensure you are receiving the proper benefits.