| Generally, workers' compensation statutes contain a limitations period in which the injured employee must give notice of his injury. Under most circumstances, the notice is provided to the employer. The notice period itself is relatively small. Some statutes mandate that it be given as soon as possible while others provide for a fixed timeframe such as within a designated number of weeks or months following the injury. The required notice allows the employer to immediately provide the employee with medical care and allows for a more accurate and comprehensive investigation into the accident causing the employee's injury. If the employee does not give the mandated notice, his claim for benefits will be denied.
A court is likely to excuse an employee's late notice if the employer received actual notice of the injury; knowledge of the injury and the events surrounding it can be acquired from any source. However, for the excuse to succeed, the employer's knowledge must extend to making the connection between the injury and the employee's work. It is insufficient that the employer merely knows that the employer is injured or has an ailment. He must basically know that the injury arose in the course of the employee's work and that there is a potential workers' compensation claim.
Another excuse that a court may allow when the employee fails to give timely notice is that the employer suffered no prejudice due to the late notice. However, not all state statutes allow the "lack of prejudice" argument. If there is no statutory provision allowing an employee to show that his delayed notice did not prejudice the employer, the employee's late notice will bar his claim.
The employee is not obligated to give notice until he is aware of the situation himself. In other words, he must know that he has been injured, to what extent he has been injured, and that his injury might warrant his receipt of workers' compensation benefits. Though an employer may argue that the employee did not give timely notice, if the employee can show that he gave notice within the jurisdiction's timeframe, calculated from the moment he, himself, had the necessary knowledge, a court will not be inclined to deny him compensation. Copyright 2010 LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. |