I heard a great joke over the weekend that seems fitting for this particular article. While I’m certainly no stand-up comedienne, it went something like this: There was a bus driver taking a group of elderly folks home from a casino trip. A short while into the ride home, the man sitting behind the driver tapped him on the shoulder and offered him some peanuts. The driver gladly accepted the treats.

When I woke up this morning my car, walkway and driveway were all coated with snow for the first time this year. The side roads were also blanketed, but when I arrived at work, the area was clearly shoveled or salted with not a snowflake in sight. The building that I work in is always very good at making sure that the grounds are well-maintained, however, I’m sure some people are not so lucky.

In Delaware, an injured worker is entitled to 7 basic benefits under Workers’ Compensation laws: medical expenses, disability payments for lost wages in the form of temporary total, temporary partial or permanent total disability, mileage reimbursement, scarring and disfigurement benefits, and permanent impairment benefits.

Many women, myself included, are notorious for putting themselves on the back burner while we take care of our families and loved ones. Especially now, as the school year begins we find our spare time getting shorter and our “to do” lists getting longer. Normally our chaotic work and home schedules would have no impact on our legal rights. However, if you are injured at work you need to be proactive and protect your legal rights early on, in order to get the care you need and the money
you deserve.

“Knowledge is power” is an old adage that becomes especially significant if you are involved in a workplace injury. All too often, injured employees attempt to navigate the murky waters of their work injury claim on their own, without the critical knowledge necessary to protect their rights. It goes without saying that your health is the most important thing to protect. Employees who are injured on the job and don’t understand the rights that they are entitled to can feel pressured to return to work before it is safe. This increases the risk that they will either become re-injured or will not heal properly from the initial injury.