After you have been injured on-the-job, you need to act quickly to protect your financial and legal best interests. Knowing what these interests are, however, can be confusing if you have never before suffered such an injury. Rather than handle your case alone, you can hire an experienced work injury attorney to represent you. These are some reasons to retain a knowledgeable workers compensation lawyer to handle your case for you.

Filing a Workers Comp Claim

One of the primary reasons to hire a work injury lawyer involves filing a claim against your employer's workers comp insurer. Depending on where you live, you may only have a number of days to make this claim. If you fail to make the claim within the allotted time frame, you miss your chance to have that insurer cover your accident-related expenses.

Still, the thought of making the claim on your own can be galling, especially if you are embarrassed or fear repercussions. The workers compensation attorney that you retain can file this claim for you in the allotted time frame.

Pursuing Lost Income

During the time that you are recovering from your work-related injury, you have the reasonable expectation for your employer to pay for your lost income. You should not have to use your saved vacation or sick leave time to cover this lost money. Instead, your employer is obligated by law to pay out your wages or salary like normal.

Your workers compensation lawyer will ensure that your lost income is not deducted from your sick or saved vacation time but instead comes out of your employer's normal payroll. Your work injury attorney will ensure that you have money on which to live during your recovery.

Pursuing Permanent Disability

If your injury has left you permanently disabled, you need a work injury lawyer to assist you in pursuing permanent disability benefits. By law, your employer may be responsible for paying most or all of these benefits. Your workers compensation attorney can file for those benefits and litigate your case in court if necessary to get those benefits paid out on a permanent basis.

These are some reasons to hire a workers compensation lawyer to take your work injury case. Your work injury lawyer can file your claim on your behalf. They can also help you recover lost wages and pursue permanent disability benefits if you cannot return to work. Contact a work injury attorney for more information.