Workers’ Comp Lawyers in Hilton Head, SC

Tell your employer

South Carolina law says no compensation is payable unless the employer is told within 90 days of the accident, with exceptions the commission can accept (SC Code § 42-15-20).

File a claim

A claim must be filed with the Workers’ Compensation Commission within two years of the accident (§ 42-15-40).

Occupational disease

The two years start only once the employee is definitively diagnosed and notified.

Repetitive trauma

Notice is due within 90 days of discovering the condition is compensable, and a claim within two years, no more than seven years after the last injurious exposure.

Five firms on the island

Naert Law Firm, Carr Legal Group, Liberty Oak Law Firm, Jenkins Law Firm and McDougall Law Firm each list workers’ comp or work injury on their own websites.

Only emergency room

Hilton Head Medical Center, 25 Hospital Center Blvd, (843) 681-6122. It is the only 24-hour ER on the island.

Two clocks run after a job injury. First, tell the employer: no compensation is payable unless the employer is given notice within 90 days of the accident, unless the Workers’ Compensation Commission accepts a reasonable excuse and finds the employer was not prejudiced (SC Code § 42-15-20). Second, file a claim with the commission within two years of the accident, or of the death if the accident was fatal (§ 42-15-40).

Illness and repeated strain are treated differently. For an occupational disease, the two years do not start until a definitive diagnosis and notice of it. For a repetitive trauma injury, notice is due within 90 days of when the employee discovered, or could have discovered, that the condition is compensable, and the claim within two years of that, but no more than seven years after the last injurious exposure. A Hilton Head workers’ compensation lawyer can tell you which clock applies.

When an employer and an injured worker agree on compensation more than seven days after the injury, a memorandum of the agreement with a full medical report must be filed with the commission within 15 days, or the agreement is voidable by the worker or dependents (§ 42-17-10). Ask any firm on this page who files it.

The island’s only 24-hour emergency room is at Hilton Head Medical Center; the hospitals page has its address and phone, and island doctors lists practices for follow-up care. A work injury is the kind of thing to document at the first visit.

Naert Law Firm, Carr Legal Group and McDougall Law Firm are all on Corpus Christi Place, near Sea Pines Circle. Jenkins Law Firm is on William Hilton Parkway on the north end, 2.1 miles from the hospital, and Liberty Oak Law Firm is inside Sea Pines. If someone other than your employer caused the injury, such as a driver, the personal injury lawyers on the sister page may also apply. The Hilton Head lawyers page covers the other practices, from closings to estate planning.