Most workplace injuries that go unreported are not catastrophic. They are the ones that seem minor at the time. A twinge in the lower back after lifting something heavy. A sore wrist that appeared over the course of a few weeks. A slip on a wet floor that left a bruise but nothing that seemed to require a doctor. The worker assumes it will get better on its own, does not want to make a fuss, and goes back to work.
Weeks later, the back pain has not gone away. It has gotten worse. The wrist is now so stiff it is hard to grip tools. The bruise turned out to be a hairline fracture that went undiagnosed. Now the worker needs medical treatment, may need to miss work, and has a workers’ compensation claim — but no record that the injury happened at work.
This scenario plays out constantly across New York City and Long Island. It is one of the most preventable problems in workers’ compensation. Report every workplace injury, no matter how minor it seems at the time. The report takes minutes. The consequences of not reporting can last years.
Minor injuries become serious injuries
The human body does not always reveal the full extent of an injury right away. A back strain can mask a herniated disc. A sore shoulder can be the beginning of a rotator cuff tear that will require surgery. A bump to the head that causes a brief headache can be the initial symptom of a concussion with lasting effects. Soft tissue injuries in particular are notorious for presenting as minor discomfort initially and progressing to significant impairment over days or weeks.
There is no way to know at the time of the accident whether an injury is truly minor or whether it is the beginning of something serious. The only way to protect yourself is to create a record. Report the injury to your employer. Complete the accident report. Note the date, time, location, and what happened. If the injury turns out to be minor and resolves on its own, no harm is done. If it turns out to be serious, you have established the foundation for a workers’ compensation claim.
The reporting gap and what it does to your claim
When a worker does not report an injury and then seeks workers’ compensation benefits weeks or months later, the insurance carrier will scrutinize the gap between the alleged injury date and the date of reporting. This scrutiny is predictable and it is effective. The carrier will argue that if the injury were truly work-related, the worker would have reported it when it happened. The carrier will suggest that the injury may have occurred outside of work, or that it is a pre-existing condition unrelated to employment.
These arguments are harder to overcome than most workers expect. The absence of a contemporaneous report creates doubt — not just with the insurance carrier, but potentially with the Workers’ Compensation Law Judge who hears the case. A judge looking at a claim filed three months after an alleged injury, with no employer report and no medical treatment for the first two months, will have questions. Those questions may be answerable, but they would not exist if the injury had been reported on the day it happened.
Why workers do not report — and why those reasons are wrong
Workers who do not report injuries usually have a reason that feels sensible at the time. The most common is that the injury seems too minor to bother with. As discussed above, minor injuries can become serious ones, and the only difference between a protected claim and an unprotected one is whether there is a report on file.
Some workers do not report because they do not want to be seen as complainers. They worry about how their supervisor or co-workers will react. They do not want to be the person who files a workers’ compensation claim over what seems like a small problem. This concern is understandable, but it prioritizes workplace perception over legal protection. A report does not mean you are filing a claim. It means you are creating a record. If the injury resolves, the report sits in a file and does nothing. If the injury worsens, the report becomes the most important piece of evidence you have.
Other workers do not report because they are afraid of retaliation. They worry they will be fired, demoted, or given undesirable assignments. New York law prohibits employers from retaliating against workers who file workers’ compensation claims. Workers’ Compensation Law Section 120 makes it a misdemeanor for an employer to discharge or discriminate against an employee for filing a claim or testifying in a workers’ compensation proceeding. The law provides protection. Use it.
Some workers employed off the books or classified as independent contractors do not report because they believe they are not eligible. As covered elsewhere in this series, undocumented workers and off-the-books workers are covered by New York workers’ compensation law. Do not let your employment situation prevent you from creating a record of a workplace injury.
How to report a minor injury
Reporting a workplace injury does not require a formal legal proceeding. Tell your supervisor what happened. Complete your employer’s accident report form if one exists. If no form is available, put the information in writing yourself — an email, a text message, a handwritten note. Include the date and time of the incident, where it occurred, what you were doing, what happened, and what part of your body was affected.
Keep a copy of everything. If you report verbally, send a follow-up email or text confirming what you reported and when. If you complete an accident report form, photograph it before turning it in. The goal is to create a dated record that connects the injury to your workplace. You are not committing to anything by reporting. You are protecting yourself in case the injury turns out to be more than it appears.
You do not need to see a doctor to report an injury. You do not need to file a C-3 with the Workers’ Compensation Board to report an injury. Reporting to your employer and creating a record are the first steps. If the injury worsens and you need medical treatment or time off from work, the report establishes that the injury occurred at work. Without that report, you are starting from behind.
The employer’s accident report is not your only record
Some employers maintain thorough accident reporting systems. Others do not. Some employers will take your report seriously and document it carefully. Others will minimize the report, fill it out incompletely, or lose it. Do not rely solely on your employer’s record-keeping. Create your own record.
Photograph the accident scene if possible. Write down the names of anyone who witnessed the incident. Save any text messages or emails related to the injury. If you went to an urgent care clinic or emergency room, keep the paperwork. If you told a co-worker or family member about the injury on the day it happened, note that as well — their testimony could corroborate your account later if needed.
The standard in a workers’ compensation case is not what happened. It is what you can prove happened. A workplace injury with no documentation is an injury that exists only in your memory. A workplace injury with a same-day report, a photograph, and a medical record from the following week is an injury that speaks for itself.
How Schwartzapfel Holbrook handles cases with delayed reporting
At Schwartzapfel Holbrook, we regularly see cases where the injured worker did not report the injury when it first occurred. When a client comes to us in that situation, we work to reconstruct the timeline: identifying any contemporaneous evidence that the injury occurred at work, locating witnesses, reviewing medical records for consistency, and building the case for why the Board should accept the claim despite the delayed reporting.
These cases are more difficult than they need to be. Every one of them would have been stronger if the worker had filed a report on the day of the injury. That report does not have to be perfect. It does not have to be detailed. It has to exist. That is the message we want every injured worker across New York City and Long Island to hear: report the injury. Do it today. The rest can be figured out later.
Schwartzapfel Holbrook / Fighting For You