Every year, hundreds of thousands of employees are injured while on the job. They are doing the job that they are paid to do, but are injured. The injury might result from improper care of the employer, difficult work conditions, or a mistake on the employee?s part. Regardless of the cause, worker?s compensation should be brought into to investigate the case. It may also be beneficial for the employee to hire their own workers compensation lawyers to better represent their best interests. When you are consulting with potential workers comp attorneys, consider the following factors.

Their experience

Not all attorneys have sufficient experience with worker?s compensation legal cases. A generalized attorney, for example, may normally deal with divorces or driving legal cases. They may not be familiar enough with the rules and regulations, as well as the time limits, or worker?s compensation cases. You do not necessarily need to work with a specialized worker?s compensation law firm, but you will want to be sure your attorney is specialized in workers compensation claims.

Their success rate

Workers compensation lawyers who achieve good results are open to sharing their success stories. You should always ask about success rates when doing initial consultations with your potential attorney. Worker?s compensation pays 100% of medical costs for injured workers and pays cash benefits for lost work time after a 3 to 7 day waiting period. You could lose out on a lot of money if you choose the wrong workers compensation lawyers.

Their availability

Sometimes going with the best workers compensation lawyers is also not the best idea. The best attorneys are likely to have very full caseloads and will not have as much time to spend on your case. In 2011, state and federal worker?s compensation laws covered about 125.8 million employees. The best attorney?s in the field are working with a lot of the top cases and are likely to put those as a priority.

Their price

If you are on a strict budget for legal representation fees, you will want to carefully choose your workers compensation attorneys. Although you do not want to sacrifice quality for cost, you will need to find a good balance between the two. In many situations, you can find discounted attorneys who are either still students or who are just out of school. It may sound daunting, but these students are heavily monitored and supervised by professionals in the field. You can actually receive great discounted representative services.

Communication and interaction

Communication is important between attorney and client. If you can never get ahold of your attorney, this can be very troublesome. They are required to submit paperwork and medical documents in specific time limits. If these documents are late, they are not admissible in court. Prevent time problems from ruining your worker?s compensation case by choosing an attorney who is diligent about responding to your inquires.

Any representation is better than no representation

If you cannot afford to hire your own representation, at least consider going with a personal worker?s compensation attorney through your company. Although their interests are generally with the business, their duty is to protect your rights. In the United States, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2010 National Compensation Survey, worker?s compensation costs represented 1.6% of employer spending overall.

Your place of employment is supposed to be a safe place. You may take on risks at some types of jobs, but it is your employer?s responsibility to make it as safe as possible. When you are injured on the job, you are owed. The employer should cover any of your medical expenses and any time taken off of work. If you have any troubles receiving the owed benefits, consider consulting with and then working with a specialized worker?s compensation attorney. They will protect your rights and will ensure that you are protected during the entire process.