What you should do if your employer or the workers’ compensation insurance carrier starts sending you things in the mail?

The law gives your employer 21 days after receiving notice of your work injury to investigate the injury and decide whether to voluntarily accept it as a compensable injury and start paying you wage loss benefits. The employer is obligated to file either a Temporary Notice on Compensation Payable ( TNCP ) if they decide to accept the claim for 90 days in order to complete their investigation of the claim or, a Notice of Compensation Payable ( NCP ) if they made the decision to accept the claim. If the employer is denying the claim, they should issue a Notice of Denial ( NCD ) which then puts the burden on you to file a Claim Petition and prove your entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits. The law requires your employer to issue these various Notices so you know shortly after your injury how your employer is processing your claim and, if they deny it, a petition for compensation can be filed in less than a month of the injury.   

You should discuss these Notices and anything else that you receive in the mail about your workers’ compensation case with your lawyer as soon as possible. Some things that you might receive are time sensitive and require an immediate response. Most of what you receive will likely be foreign to you, especially if you have never had a workers’ compensation claim before, so you’ll want an experienced workers’ compensation attorney to explain the paperwork. Don’t ignore any paperwork that you receive about your workers’ compensation case. If you do, it could have serious consequences and you could lose your right to compensation.