I'm honestly surprised you don't know about your own worker's benefits. You should've signed up for that when you were first hired, along with your 401K, short/long term disability, health coverage, dental, etc...It should've been explained to you about all that stuff. You human resources representative for you company should be able to help you out with any of that over any of us. Usually, you should be covered on your disability whether that be short or long term. And that would be around 60% of your gross pay and would be non-taxed. It should use all of your vacation and sick time up before your disability kicks in. At my company, you're covered under your FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) for 12 weeks in a rolling year. After all that is utilized, you are no longer protected and have a great chance of being terminated. But if you hurt yourself on the job and it goes under workman's comp., then that time would be unlimited and you would be protected no matter how long you're out. I would talk directly to my HR rep first and foremost. Personally, unless you're trying to get a fat settlement from your company and don't want to stay in it's good graces, then by all means get a lawyer. Just a warning that you will be marked for some sort of termination if you get lawyers involved with your company. That's just what I've seen time after time. Best of luck.
