I'm Nick Thompson a partner at Casey Jones law we're a firm dedicated to representing Railroad employees. Part of representing railroad employees is not just helping them after the fact. It's also educating them on their rights. For that reason we're making a series of videos on the questions we're most often ask. We hope they help.

“I reported an injury and the railroad is asking me to fill out an injury report form do I need to do that?” The answer is yes. To be clear that's different than talking to claims.  You do not need to give a statement to claims and we have a video explaining the reason behind that, but you do have to give an initial statement or fill out a personal injury report form.

When do you have to do that? Importantly under federal law you have a right to medical treatment--not after you fill out a injury report form, immediately. The railroad has to wait until after you get treatment including after you're off of medication if you take you know pain medication while at the hospital. Now you say, “Nick, my supervisor is despite it being illegal you've told me this is illegal. Nevertheless my supervisor is required me. They've told me to wait at the Depot. They're going to bring an injury report form to me even though I've asked for treatment. What should I do first?” Clarify and ask your supervisor, “are you ordering me to stay here despite my having asked for medical treatment immediately?” We have yet to have a supervisor say, “yes, I'm ordering you to wait there” when asked that question. When called out on it, they always take you to the hospital. 

Now what do you do if you happen to be the one person they refuse to take to the hospital? Memorialize it. And what I mean by that is sending a text or email some kind of electronic communication to that supervisor. If it's before the fact, just writing “are you ordering me to stay here even though I've asked for medical treatment.” If it's after the fact, send them an email or text saying, “on such and such date I asked for medical treatment you ordered me to stay here and fill out a personal injury report form. Please let me know if I've misunderstood anything. Thank you.”

So now that brings us to “I'm filling out the personal injury report form. I'm giving a statement. What should I write?” We've created a separate video on that topic which you can see here.