What to Do After a Workplace Injury in New Jersey

Prioritize life and limb. Call 911 or go to the ER for crushing injuries, head trauma, chest pain, severe bleeding, loss of consciousness, or inability to walk. Tell emergency staff it is work-related so the chart starts correctly. After stabilization, connect with the employer's authorized provider for ongoing care so unauthorized elective bills do not land on you.

Tell a supervisor or HR the same day when possible. Say you were hurt at work, describe how, and ask for the accident report. Keep a copy. Text yourself a short note with the time, location, machine or product involved, weather or lighting if relevant, and names of anyone who saw it.

Do not let a 'walk it off' culture rewrite history. Delayed reporting is the first argument carriers raise, even when the injury is obvious on MRI later. If you left the site in an ambulance, have a family member notify the employer once you are stable.

Photograph the scene, equipment, missing guards, spilled liquid, and visible injury if you can do so safely. Witness names and numbers beat vague memories six months later when the adjuster claims 'nobody saw anything.'

Give the employer clear notice of a work injury promptly — preferably in writing or email you can prove — and treat the two-year claim petition window as real even while benefits are being paid voluntarily. Occupational diseases and latent conditions use discovery-based timing; do not guess those alone.

Carrier adjusters may open a claim number and authorize a few visits. That is not a Judge of Compensation order. If care stops, if temporary disability checks bounce, or if they deny the claim outright, you still need a petition strategy. Read our how-to-file practice page for the petition mechanics.

Document every conversation: date, person, and what they promised. Save texts and emails. Verbal assurances evaporate when a new adjuster takes over the file or when the employer changes third-party administrators.

If you already missed early notice, call counsel anyway. Some late-notice defenses can be answered with facts about when you reasonably knew the injury was work-related, or with employer actual knowledge. Waiting longer never helps.

Authorized medical treatment for the work injury and temporary disability benefits when you are out of work or on restricted duty that cuts wages — subject to waiting periods, rate caps, and medical proof. Permanency money is a later chapter after maximum medical improvement, not something the first clinic visit decides.

Authorized treating physicians control much of the early file. Independent medical exams are evaluations for the carrier, not treating relationships. If surgery, physical therapy, or diagnostics are denied, motions for medical and temporary benefits exist in the Division of Workers Compensation.

Light-duty offers must match real restrictions. Returning too early, or accepting unsuitable work that re-injures you, can damage both health and the wage claim. See our medical-treatment and temporary-disability pages for deeper procedure.

Keep a pain and function journal: sleep, lifting limits, driving tolerance, and missed workdays. Treating notes that only say 'follow up' without functional detail make later permanency fights harder than they need to be.

Call when the carrier denies the claim, stops checks, refuses surgery or specialist care, pressures a quick settlement, asks for a recorded statement, or when a third party may share fault. Call earlier if the injury is catastrophic, involves a head injury, or you are unsure about notice timing.

Kaplan & Kaplan represents claimants only. We do not defend employers or insurers. Ken Kaplan, Esq. handles workers compensation and related injury matters from North Haledon with statewide reach across Passaic, Bergen, Essex, Hudson, Morris, and beyond.

A free consultation maps notice timing, authorized care, wage exposure, and whether a third-party claim should run beside the Division case. Bring denial letters, clinic printouts, and any settlement draft you have been asked to sign.

Do not wait until the statute is nearly expired to start gathering records. Hospitals purge imaging, contractors leave sites, and witnesses change jobs. Early counsel preserves options you cannot recreate later.