I spent years as a claims adjuster before I joined Corbel Risk, and the files I remember are the ones where the first two days went badly. The injury itself was rarely the problem. The trouble was a missing statement, a lost photo or a notice that reached the carrier a week late. This is the routine I ask our contractor clients to follow.
Hour zero: people first
Get medical attention for the injured worker before anything else. Call emergency services if there is any doubt. Stop the work area if the hazard is still present, and keep other workers away from it. No claim decision matters more than the person on the ground.
Once the situation is safe, one supervisor should take charge of the response. Claims go wrong when three people each collect part of the story and nobody holds the whole thing.
Hours 1 to 12: preserve what you can see
- Photograph the scene from several angles before anything is cleaned up or repaired. Include the equipment, the surface, the lighting and any guarding or signage.
- Keep the equipment involved. If a ladder, scaffold component or tool failed, do not repair or discard it. Tag it and store it.
- Write down who was on site, including subcontractors and visitors, with phone numbers.
- Note the time, the weather and the task being performed. These details fade quickly from memory.
Do not speculate about fault in writing, in texts or on social media. Describe what happened, not who was to blame. Fault is decided later by people with all the facts.
Hours 12 to 24: notify
Report the injury to your workers’ compensation carrier promptly. State rules set deadlines, and they vary, but carriers generally want notice as soon as you know of the injury, and delay can lead to penalties or complicate the file. If the injured person is not your employee, such as a subcontractor’s worker or a member of the public, notify your general liability carrier as well. When in doubt, notify both. Late notice is a much bigger risk than an unnecessary one.
Then call your broker. Ours can help decide which policies are triggered, contact the carriers with the right claim reference and make sure the report is complete. If your contract requires you to notify the project owner or a general contractor, do it at this stage too, because those clauses often carry their own short deadlines.
Hours 24 to 48: statements and records
Ask each witness to write down what they saw while it is fresh. Use their own words, and do not edit or coach. If you can do it without pressure, a short recorded statement is even better. Keep these with the photos in a single folder.
Gather the paperwork the carrier will ask for. Training records, the daily log, safety meeting sign-ins, equipment inspection records and the relevant subcontract are all typical requests. Having them ready shortens the investigation and shows the project was run with care.
- The daily site log for the day of the incident and the week before.
- Toolbox talk or safety meeting sign-in sheets.
- Equipment inspection and maintenance records.
- The subcontract and the certificate of insurance for any subcontractor involved.
What to avoid
Do not discuss settlement or fault with the injured person’s lawyer, an investigator or another party’s insurer without talking to your carrier first. Do not promise payment or make admissions on site. And do not assume that an injury that looks minor will stay that way. Soft-tissue and back injuries in particular can develop over days.
Also avoid the quiet approach of handling small injuries informally and reporting only the serious ones. Policies typically require notice of incidents that could reasonably lead to a claim, and an unreported incident that later becomes a claim is far harder to defend.
After the first 48 hours
From here, the carrier assigns an adjuster and the file moves at its own pace. Your job is to respond quickly to requests and keep your broker informed. At Corbel Risk, our claims advocates stay on the file, read the adjuster’s correspondence and push when a response stalls.
Finally, hold a short debrief with the crew. Ask what would have prevented the injury and act on the answer. The best claim is the one that never happens, and the second best is the one that was documented well from the first hour.
If you would like a one-page version of this checklist for your supervisors’ trucks, ask us and we will send it.
