How Long Do I Have to Give Notice of My Workplace Injury in Georgia?

Often in my Atlanta workers’ compensation practice, I’m asked when an injured worker should report his injury to his employer. Simply put, you should report your workplace injury as soon as possible, but no later than 30 days.

Of course, if your injury is a disease or a repetitive motion injury that developed gradually, you are not expected to be able to identify the exact date on which the condition began and report it within 30 days of that date. However, you should strive to report trauma injuries and other “sudden” injuries within 30 days of the workplace accident.

This begs the question, “What if my boss told me to ‘shake it off’ and keep working, so I didn’t realize how bad it was until 3 months later?” I would still report the injury to your employer and consult an experienced Atlanta “workman’s comp” lawyer, as a technical defense such as “improper notice” is unlikely to, by itself, keep you from getting workers’ compensation benefits with most of the Atlanta Administrative Law Judges, in my experience.