Georgia Workers' Compensation Lawyer Blog

A workers' compensation lawyer in metro Atlanta recently asked me to represent his client during oral arguments given to the appellate level of the State Board of Workers' Compensation. The issue was whether or not adequate notice was given after an injury at work in Atlanta.

Believe it or not, an appellate court in Georgia has held that, even when an injured worker told her employer that her back injury was not related to work, when she later determined through her doctor that did have a back injury related to work, she was able to win her case despite her boss's attempt to use an inadequate notice defense. 

Basically, adequate notice to an employer just has to give your employer the opportunity to investigate your injury to see if it's related to your job or not--you don't have to report that you've had an injury that arose out of, and in the course of, your employment.  Just letting your supervisor know you are injured can be adequate.  For more nuances in the law regarding a "notice defense" in Georgia, feel free to contact my Atlanta "workmen's comp" law firm.

Often in my Atlanta workers' compensation practice, I'm asked when an injured worker should report his injury to his employer. Simply put, you should report your workplace injury as soon as possible, but no later than 30 days.

Of course, if your injury is a disease or a repetitive motion injury that developed gradually, you are not expected to be able to identify the exact date on which the condition began and report it within 30 days of that date. However, you should strive to report trauma injuries and other "sudden" injuries within 30 days of the workplace accident. 

This begs the question, "What if my boss told me to 'shake it off' and keep working, so I didn't realize how bad it was until 3 months later?" I would still report the injury to your employer and consult an experienced Atlanta "workman's comp" lawyer, as a technical defense such as "improper notice" is unlikely to, by itself, keep you from getting workers' compensation benefits with most of the Atlanta Administrative Law Judges, in my experience.