Reporting a D.C. Work Injury

If you remember nothing else, or don’t read any further, remember this: When you report a work injury to your employer make sure you talk with a supervisor or manager and tell them what is injured, when you got hurt, where you got hurt and how you got hurt. Doing that will help protect your rights in the future.

D.C. law requires that an injury be reported to your employer writing within 30 days of the date of the accident, or within 30 days after you became aware that a condition was caused by a work accident. The law also lays out that the written report is to be completed using a Form 7 and Form 7A from the D.C Office of Workers’ Compensation.   

But there are a lot of exceptions to this requirement. The first is the requirement that the reporting to your employer be in writing. The courts have stated that if your employer has actual notice of the injury within the 30 days, then that is the same as providing written notice. This means that if you were taken to the hospital by an ambulance from the job, your employer has some idea that there might be a work injury. It also means that if you tell your supervisor that you hurt your back, or your knee, or your arm; or if they saw you do it, then they have sufficient notice that an injury occurred and you have met the requirement.

There are problems with verbally reporting the injury to your employer though. The first is that there is no record of when the conversation took place. All too often managers, supervisors, and HR directors will come to court and testify that an injured worker never told them anything or that the injured worker only told them they had a medical problem, not that it happened on the job. This leads to the second problem. Often when a work injury is reported verbally, an injured employee with tell a supervisor that they are hurt. There is no specific mention of where, how, or when it happened. To the injured worker it seems obvious. I just hurt my shoulder and now I am telling you that my shoulder hurts. But insurance companies are masters at using the lack of detail against injured workers. They will argue that the supervisor had no way of knowing that it was a work injury, or how it happened or when it happened, so they just assumed it must have happened at home.

This is why it is important that whenever you report a work injury you include 4 things: What you hurt, when you hurt it, where it happened, and how you hurt it. If it can be done in writing with a copy made, even better. If you can email or text your boss, that also will create the written record that will protect you later.

Remember, that even if you had an injury that occurred days, or even weeks ago, it is not too late to report the injury at work. If you contact a supervisor or manager and report the same information: What is hurt, where and when it happened, and how it happened; you still have a claim under D.C. law.

If you have any questions about a work injury, either new or older, please contact the Law Office of Michael Kitzman for a free consultation.