CROCKETT LAW BLOG
Injured at Work? Start With These Questions
After a work injury, protect your health and create a record of what happened. Start with the steps below, then contact Crockett Law promptly to understand employer coverage, evidence, and your rights.
1. Report the Injury Before You Leave Work
Once you are safe, report your work injury immediately—preferably before your shift ends and before leaving the workplace. Emergency care comes first. Tell your supervisor or the designated reporting contact when, where, and how it happened, what task you were doing, and what symptoms you have. Ask for a written incident report and keep proof that you gave notice.
If a manager says, “Go home, and we will make a report if you are still hurting,” ask that the injury be documented now. If nobody will take a report, send a factual email or text to the appropriate workplace contact and save it. Do not let a refusal prevent you from getting medical care.
A missing report gives an employer room to argue that the injury was minor, never happened at work, or occurred after you went home. Delayed reporting can also allow safety issues to go undocumented and postpone evaluation or payment decisions.
Some non-subscriber benefit plans contain same-shift or other short reporting requirements that may be used to deny plan benefits. The plan language, its enforceability, and any separate negligence claim need legal review. A plan’s deadline is not automatically the deadline for every legal claim. Texas workers’ compensation has different notice rules—do not treat those as a reason to wait.
Ask how to obtain a same-day medical evaluation and who handles treatment authorization. Medical benefits and employer obligations depend on the coverage, plan, and circumstances; a manager’s reassurance does not establish them.
2. Photograph the Report, Scene, and Cameras
Take a photograph or request a copy of the completed incident report. If you are not given a copy, record who received the report and when, and save your own accurate account. Photograph the entire scene from several angles, including the hazard, equipment, floor, warning signs, lighting, and any visible injury. Identify and photograph cameras that may have recorded the event.
Ask loss prevention or the safety manager to let you view the footage and provide a copy. Explain truthfully that it could help your doctor understand how you were injured and make the incident report more accurate. If they let you view the video but cannot provide a downloaded copy, ask permission to record the playback on your phone. Keep the complete original phone recording, not just a cropped clip. That recording is a useful backup; it does not replace a request for the original footage and related records.
Do Not Wait for Video to Be Overwritten
Surveillance systems often reuse storage. Some footage may be overwritten in 14–30 days, and some systems do so sooner; there is no guaranteed retention period. Ask promptly for footage from every relevant camera, including time before and after the injury.
Do not assume your employer will save it because you reported an injury. Contact a lawyer immediately about a written preservation request covering video, incident records, and other evidence. In Texas, a duty to preserve relevant evidence can arise when a party reasonably anticipates litigation—even before it receives a lawyer’s letter. Whether that duty arose and was breached depends on the facts. An early letter helps identify what must be preserved, but it cannot recover footage already erased.
Collect evidence safely and through access you are authorized to use. Do not enter restricted areas, access someone else’s account, or take unrelated confidential records.
3. Get Witness Accounts While Memories Are Fresh
Get the names and personal contact information of coworkers or others who saw the injury, the hazard, or what happened afterward. Ask each willing witness to give a dated statement in their own words while events are fresh. With permission, a phone recording can preserve an account. Do not coach a witness, suggest an answer, or ask anyone to exaggerate.
Do not rely on the employer to collect every witness account. A missing statement may leave a gap in the investigation, and coworkers may become reluctant to speak because they fear losing their job or future work. Friendship or family ties do not guarantee that an account will remain unchanged.
In matters handled by Crockett Law, a client’s close friend denied witnessing an injury because he feared losing his job. In another matter, a client’s uncle did not acknowledge how a construction injury occurred until about two years later, after the general contractor stopped giving his company contract work. These examples show why an early, voluntary account matters; they do not mean every coworker or employer will act the same way.
4. Save the Policies and SOPs That Applied to Your Task
Keep photographs or copies of policies and standard operating procedures you are lawfully allowed to access. Employers may later claim a rule or training requirement existed that you were never shown. Preserve the version available when you were injured, its date, and any record of training or acknowledgment.
- Safety rules and hazard reporting.
- Work-injury and incident-reporting procedures.
- Video retention and storage policies.
- Required protective equipment.
- Training and task-specific instructions.
- Inspections, maintenance, and checklists.
Do not alter a policy or remove records you are not authorized to take. Tell your lawyer what records exist so they can seek them through the proper process.
5. Get Same-Day Care and Keep Your Appointments
Seek appropriate medical evaluation the same day when possible. For a serious or urgent injury, call 911 or get emergency care immediately. Tell the clinician how the work injury happened, when symptoms started, and about any prior symptoms or medical conditions. Ask for written recommendations and work restrictions.
Follow your provider’s treatment plan and keep your appointments. Gaps in care may be used to question how serious the injury was or whether it was related to work. If cost, transportation, scheduling, or an employer’s authorization prevents treatment, document the problem and tell your provider and lawyer promptly. Do not pretend you improved because you could not obtain care.
What if Recommended Treatment or an MRI Is Delayed?
Keep the recommendation, request date, and written approval, denial, or delay. Ask the treating provider about the medical consequences and available next steps. If an employer or plan administrator limits visits or delays a recommended test, your lawyer should know about it.
Some signs of a recent injury, including certain swelling or edema findings, can change as healing progresses. A delayed MRI may make questions about timing and causation harder to evaluate. There is no universal rule that acute findings disappear after 45–90 days: it depends on the injury, tissue, findings, and patient. A later scan without acute changes does not, by itself, prove that symptoms are only age-related or that no work injury occurred. Your clinician should decide whether and when imaging is medically appropriate.
6. Contact a Lawyer Immediately—Before a Recorded Statement
Contact a lawyer as soon as you are injured so you know your rights, and before giving a recorded statement to any insurance representative. This includes an employer’s adjuster, benefit-plan representative acting for an insurer, or your own insurance company. Tell the lawyer about any notice or cooperation duties so those obligations can be addressed promptly. Do not delay the injury report or necessary care while trying to obtain legal advice.
You do not need a completed investigation or every medical record to call Crockett Law. We can review employer coverage, preservation requests, plan documents, arbitration agreements, treatment delays, and potential claims. Read our non-subscriber workplace injury page, call (281) 953-1180, or request a free consultation.
Further reading: TDI reporting and compensability guidance; Texas Supreme Court evidence-preservation decision; Medical review of injury imaging and timing.