If you have a consultation booked with a workers’ compensation attorney, the most useful hour you can spend beforehand is gathering your paperwork. Not because anything is required — a first meeting is worth having whether you arrive with a folder or with nothing at all — but because the more an attorney can see, the more specific the advice you walk out with.
Here is what to bring, why each item matters, and what to avoid doing in the meantime.
What to Bring to Your Consultation
The accident itself
Write down the date and time, where you were, what you were doing, and how the injury happened, while it is still fresh. Include the names of anyone who saw it or who you told afterward — a supervisor, a coworker, the person who drove you to the hospital. Witnesses move on to other jobs, and a name and phone number written down in the first week is worth more than a memory a year later.
Your own notes matter too. What you could do before the injury and cannot do now, which tasks at work you are struggling with, how you are sleeping. That detail is difficult to reconstruct later and it is exactly what a claim turns on.
Your medical treatment
Bring whatever you have: emergency room paperwork, discharge instructions, imaging reports, the names and addresses of every provider you have seen, and a list of the medications you have been prescribed. List every body part that hurts, not just the worst one. Injuries that never make it into the medical record early are the ones the insurance carrier disputes later.
The paperwork trail
This is the part most people overlook, and it is often the most informative thing in the folder:
- Your C-3 claim form, if you have already filed one.
- Any accident or incident report your employer prepared, and anything you signed.
- Every letter or form the insurance carrier has sent you, including the ones that look like junk mail.
- Any notice of denial, and any decision issued by the Workers’ Compensation Board.
- Your WCB case number, if a case has been established. It appears on Board correspondence.
A carrier’s letters tell an attorney what position the insurance company has taken and what has already happened on the claim, often faster than any other document.
Your wages and your job
Bring pay stubs, a W-2, or whatever shows what you actually earn. Your average weekly wage drives the value of the entire claim, and it is one of the most commonly understated figures in workers’ compensation. Overtime, shift differentials and regular bonuses can belong in that calculation.
Mention it if you worked a second job. Concurrent employment can raise your wage rate, and it is routinely missed because nobody asks. Bring your job title and a plain description of what the work physically involves — how much you lift, how long you stand, whether you climb or drive — because that is what determines whether you can return to it.
Don’t Wait Until You Have All of It
Come with what you have. Medical records can be requested, a missing C-3 can be filed, and Board correspondence can be looked up. What cannot be recovered is time spent waiting for a complete folder while a deadline runs. If you have nothing but the date of the accident and the name of your employer, that is still a conversation worth having — and it does not have to happen in person, as explained next.
You Don’t Have to Come to the Office
A significant number of our new clients never come to the office to get started. Consultations and sign-ups are handled remotely, and there is nothing for you to print, sign, scan or mail back — we sign the necessary initial forms on your behalf, including the C-3 that opens your claim and the OC-400 that puts us on the record as your representative with the Board.
That matters more than it sounds. The people who most need to get a claim started are often the ones least able to travel to an office: out of work, in pain, on restricted activity, without a car, or managing childcare on a reduced income. None of that should be what decides whether your claim gets filed on time. If you would rather come in and sit down, you are welcome to — but it is not a requirement, and it is not a lesser version of the process if you don’t.
What Not to Do Before the Meeting
Don’t give the carrier a recorded statement. An adjuster may call and ask for one, often within days and usually pleasantly. You are generally under no obligation to provide it, and answering questions about a condition you do not yet understand tends to help the insurance company more than it helps you.
Don’t sign broad medical authorizations. A narrow authorization covering the injury is one thing. A blanket release opening up years of unrelated medical history is another, and it is difficult to undo.
Don’t stop treating. Keep your appointments and follow your doctor’s restrictions — first because that is how you recover, and second because your treating physician’s reports are the evidence your claim is built from. A claim moves on medical proof, and medical proof only exists if you are being seen.
Don’t let the deadlines slide while you decide. New York requires written notice to your employer within 30 days of the accident, and a claim generally must be filed with the Board within two years. Those clocks run whether or not you have chosen an attorney.
The C-3 Claim Form
In New York, the Workers’ Compensation Board provides injured workers with a Claimant Information Packet built around the form that starts a claim: the C-3. It can be completed online or on paper, and it asks for the core details of the injury — how it happened, what was hurt, where you have treated, and who you work for.
Filing it is what puts your claim in front of the Board. Telling your supervisor is a separate requirement and does not substitute for it. An incomplete or inaccurate C-3 is a common source of early trouble, which is one reason it is worth talking through the form before it goes in rather than afterward.
Two deadlines, and they are not the same one
People collapse these into a single date and lose rights that way.
- Notice to your employer: 30 days. The Board’s own warning is blunt — if 30 days pass and you have not notified your employer, you may lose your rights to benefits.
- Filing the C-3: two years. Two years from the accident, or from when you knew or should have known that a condition was work-related. Filing late may result in the claim being denied.
The exceptions to the two-year rule, and there are real ones, are on our page about the two-year deadline to file.
List every body part, not just the one that hurts most
This is the single most common self-inflicted wound on a C-3. You land badly, your knee is screaming, and that is what goes on the form — while the back that also took the impact goes unmentioned because it seemed minor that week.
Six months later the back is the real problem, and now you are arguing to add a site to an established claim rather than having it there from the start. It can be done. It is harder, and the carrier gets to ask why it was not there originally.
Describe the mechanism accurately too — what you were doing, what moved, what gave way. That sentence gets read against your medical records for the life of the claim.
Prior injuries: answer the question honestly
Section F of the form asks whether you previously injured the same body part or had a similar illness, and whether a doctor treated it.
Say so if you did. A prior injury does not disqualify you — New York comp deals with pre-existing conditions routinely. What does damage a claim is a prior injury the carrier discovers on its own after you said there was none. What you put on the C-3 is a statement to the Board, and material misstatements are exactly what Section 114-a is for.
The C-3.3, and when you actually have to sign it
If you disclose prior treatment, you will meet Form C-3.3, a limited HIPAA release. It lets your providers give the carrier records about that earlier injury to the same body part, and it expires when your claim is established or disallowed and all appeals are exhausted.
Whether you must sign it depends on something nobody explains at the time:
- If the carrier controverts your claim, the C-3.3 is required as part of the controverted-claim process.
- If the claim is not controverted, the carrier may send you one and ask — but you are not required to sign it. The carrier’s recourse is to document that it asked and let a judge sort it out.
That distinction is worth a phone call before you sign anything, because a release handed to you with a stack of forms does not announce which situation you are in.
How to file it
Online through the Board’s website, by mail to the Board at PO Box 5205, Binghamton, NY 13902-5205, or in person at a Board office. The Board’s help line for claimants is 1-877-632-4996.
What Workers’ Compensation Pays
Medical treatment. In an established claim, workers’ compensation covers necessary medical care for the work injury, provided the treatment is authorized, related to the injury, and the claim remains open.
Lost wages. If your injury keeps you out of work beyond the waiting period, wage replacement is generally two-thirds of your average weekly wage, multiplied by your degree of disability, and subject to a maximum that the Board resets every year on July 1. For accidents occurring between July 1, 2026 and June 30, 2027, the maximum is $1,281.50 per week and the minimum is $384.45. Because the cap moves each July, the rate that applies to you is fixed by your date of accident.
Permanency benefits. If you are left with a lasting impairment, you may be entitled to further benefits once you reach maximum medical improvement — a schedule loss of use award for certain extremities, or ongoing benefits where the injury affects the spine or another non-scheduled body part.
Be prepared for the timing to be slower than you would like. Benefits do not begin the week you file, and a disputed claim can take considerably longer than an accepted one.
What the Consultation Itself Looks Like
Expect questions. What you were doing when it happened, what hurts now, who you have treated with, what your employer said, what the carrier has sent. The point is to work out where your claim actually stands and what needs to happen over the next few months, not to sell you anything.
You should leave knowing what the next step is and who to call about it. Bring your own questions as well — how the fee works, who will handle your file, what happens at a hearing. A first meeting is as much your chance to evaluate the firm as the other way around.
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I don’t have any paperwork yet?
Come anyway. Medical records and Board documents can be obtained, and a claim form that has not been filed can be filed. Waiting until the folder is complete is how deadlines get missed.
Do I have to come to the office to get started?
No. Many of our clients sign up remotely and never come in. There is nothing for you to sign — we sign the initial Board forms, including the C-3 and the OC-400 notice of retainer, on your behalf.
Does the consultation cost anything?
No. Consultations are free. If we don’t recover money for you, we don’t get paid.
How are workers’ compensation attorney fees calculated in New York?
They are contingency-based and must be approved by the Workers’ Compensation Board. The fee is taken out of the award rather than billed to you, and the Board reviews the amount — it is not simply set by the attorney.
Should I bring my spouse or a family member?
You are welcome to. A second set of ears helps, particularly if you are in pain or on medication, and family members often remember details about how the injury has changed daily life that the injured worker plays down.
My employer says they’ll handle everything. Do I still need to file?
Your employer reporting the accident to its insurance carrier is not the same as your claim being filed with the Board. The C-3 is yours to file, and the two-year deadline applies to you regardless of what your employer has or has not done.
I already have an attorney but I’m not happy. Can I still come in?
Yes. You are entitled to an attorney of your own choosing at any point in an open claim, and you do not need your current attorney’s permission to change. Our guide to changing attorneys mid-case explains how the substitution and the fee work.
Reach Out to the Law Offices of Frank J. Dito, Jr.
Our firm represents injured workers throughout Staten Island and Brooklyn, from filing a claim through hearings, permanency and settlement. Whether you are getting ready to file, dealing with a denial, or simply want to know where your claim stands, reach out to schedule a free consultation. Consultations are free. If we don’t recover money for you, we don’t get paid.
If you were hurt at work and have not yet started the process, our guide on what to do after a workplace injury covers the first steps.
Attorney Advertising. This page is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is formed by reading this page or submitting an inquiry.
