time frame if any to file claim

If you have been injured due to someone else's negligence, you may consider filing a personal injury lawsuit. If your injury is not serious you may want to pursue other options. You posted this under worker compensation but you do not say if this is a work accident or not. That key bit of information is crucial for making any valid observations about the time you have. After suffering a injury you only have a certain amount of time to file a lawsuit. The statute of limitations varies by state.

Gather all pertinent documents and any evidence at your disposal. Much of the record keeping should be done from the moment of the accident, before you even meet with your personal injury lawyer. Write down everything you remember about what happened, before, during and right after the accident. Videotapes, photographs and witness names and testimony will help a great deal. Then contact a personal injury lawyer. Your personal injury lawyer will take your case through civil court proceedings and will try and contact the other party to reach a settlement. Filing an official lawsuit may not be necessary.

Get a lawyer, today! Check with a lawyer in your locale to discuss more of the details. If you wait too long your rights will be lost.

Good luck to you.

God bless.

NOTE: This answer is made available by the out-of-state lawyer for educational purposes only. By using or participating in this site you understand that there is no attorney client privilege between you and the attorney responding. This site should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a licensed professional attorney that practices in the subject practice discipline and with whom you have an attorney client relationship along with all the privileges that relationship provides. The law changes frequently and varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction. The information and materials provided are general in nature, and may not apply to a specific factual or legal circumstance described in the question.

If you were hurt on the job, then you will have a workers' compensation claim. You ask about "filing" a claim, which could mean more than one thing: notice to the employer/carrier (E/C), or making a formal claim to the state against the E/C for benefits that have not been timely provided.

As for notice to the employer, you were required to notify the employer of the accident when it happened or when you learned that the injury was work-related. Specifically, the law states that the injured worker must notify his/her employer of an injury arising out of and in the course of employment within 30 days after the date of or initial manifestation of the injury. The employer is then obligated to notify its insurance carrier immediately, and the adjuster must contact the injured worker within days of that notice regarding rights/duties and the benefits claim process.

As for the formal claim, the statute of limitations is two years from the date of accident, barring special circumstances. Generally, failure to do so will act as a bar to the filing of a Petition For Benefits (PFB), which is a formal claim for benefits. There are exceptions, though, including if the employer had actual knowledge of the injury or the cause of the injury could not be identified without a medical opinion and the employee advised the employer within 30 days after obtaining a medical opinion indicating that the injury arose out of and in the course of employment. There is also an "exceptional circumstances" exceptions, to allow the comp judge some wiggle room.

All of the above is general information. If you have any questions regarding how the above might apply in your case, you should contact a lawyer immediately.

I would like to know the circumstances under which you hurt your back at work to see whether you have a third party claim in addition to a comp claim. For example, did you hurt your back by lifting heavy objects or were you involved in a traffic collision while on the job?

By the way, I see that Ken Schwartz responded to your post. He knows more about workers' comp in Florida than anyone I know.

Dennis Phillips, Esq., Florida personal injury & wrongful death attorney
www.inawreck.com. Negligence is no "accident" (TM)
Member: Million Dollar Advocates Forum, Mensa, Florida Bar, American Association for Justice, Florida Justice Association, Palm Beach County Justice Association, Broward County Justice Association