Lost wages after car accident, but I may need to quit?

Question

I was in a car accident, rear ended by a truck doing 50 while I was stopped at a light. The worst part is I was in a roll over accident not even a year ago (it was maybe 7 months ago, and treatment for that took 3 months) , and because of that the current one made my back really bad as I had longer term injuries that just needed to heal on their own.

Long story short, my job is basically standing non-stop for several hours, walking, and carrying heavy stuff constantly. It puts too much of a strain on my back and there is never an opportunity to stop and sit. I missed two weeks already due to a doctors notice, but its still not healed.

I was told I would get lost wages for those weeks, but what happens if I just quit? I try to come in and do what I can, but the people there don't understand what it feels like to have a terrible back, bruised ribs and liver that gets stressed when I lift heavy stuff. I don't want to constantly be calling off and get fired over it.

So if I quit due to my injury, will I still get lost wages for the time I was scheduled until now? Or will I lose it all?

Baa Baa · Accepted Answer

You need to get your doctor to say you cannot work due to your medical problem.  If your company has short term disability insurance for you, then you would be able to collect your wages by them or you also might be able to collect off the insurance company of the person who hit you in the car accident if it was not your fault, but you have to be very careful to have your doctor say the reason you cannot work was due to the injuries you received in that accident.

There is also the Family Medical Leave in which workers can take up to 6 months off of work due to medical or family problems and they must still keep your job open for you.  I believe the employer must have a certain amount of employees for them to be forced to participate in this, but not exactly sure.  If you work for a large company with lots of employees, then they definitely have to have this for their workers because it's the law.  The worker does not get paid for the time off, but they will have to hold their job.  You would have to fill out the necessary paperwork for this along with your doctor.

You should not quit at all because that's not going to help you at all and probably hurt you.  You must say you cannot work due to this accident and get your doctor to say it too and then someone is going to probably have to pay your wages either through short term disability if you have it or the other guys insurance company which you will have to put in a claim to them.  You will not be able to collect unemployment by any means since a person has to be willing and able to work to collect on that.

You certainly need to talk to an attorney about this accident who can handle all of this for you and guide you as to what is the best thing to do about work and everything else.  Most do not charge anything for a consult on an accident.  We see ads all the time everywhere  to contact these attorneys when we have an accident and are injured.  You need to do that.

Lost wages after car accident, but I may need to quit?

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