Whether or not you have lost any time from work as a result of your work accident, you should file a workers’ compensation claim with the New York Workers’ Compensation Board. Although the law allows you to initiate a work-related claim up to 2 years after the date of the work accident (or in case of an occupational disease, 2 years after the date you knew or should have known that you had a work-related disease or illness), you should file your claim as soon as possible.
In order to file a workers’ compensation claim you must fill out a C-3 form and submit it to the New York Workers’ Compensation Board. If you previously suffered an accident, whether work-related or not work-related, and injured any of the same body parts as you did in this instant claim, you would be expected to also fill out and sign a C-3.3 form, and submit it to the Workers’ Compensation Board together with the C-3 form. Once they review your claim, the Board will issue a notice of index, and will assign you a WCB number, which is an 8 digit number that distinguishes your particular case in the Board files. That number is very important, and you should keep a record of it with you at all times. That number allows you and your attorney to view your case information within the Board files to see what other developments take place relative to your file.
