Nobody sets out to damage their own claim. The mistakes below are made by careful people who were in pain, short of time and taking somebody at their word.
The most expensive mistake in an Ontario WSIB claim is missing an objection deadline, because a decision nobody objects to usually stands however wrong it was. You have 30 days to object to a decision about return to work, work transition, labour market re-entry or re-employment. You have 6 months for everything else. The second most expensive mistake is assuming your employer's Form 7 covers you. It does not. You file your own account on a Form 6.
An objection is written notice that you disagree with a decision, filed inside the limit that applies to it. It is what begins an appeal. A telephone call complaining about a decision is not an objection and does not stop the clock.
1. Do you need to file your own WSIB form?
Yes. Your employer files a Form 7 within three business days of learning about the injury. That is their report, written from their side. You file a Form 6, the Worker's Report of Injury or Disease, which is yours.
The two documents are read side by side. Where only one exists, the account in it becomes the account of what happened. If your employer has not filed, you can still report the injury to the WSIB yourself.
2. Does your doctor know the injury happened at work?
Say it out loud at the first appointment. That single sentence routes your care through the WSIB rather than through your provincial health plan, and it puts the work connection into the clinical record from day one.
A file where the work connection appears for the first time at week six invites a question that a file recording it at day one never faces.
3. Which WSIB objection deadline applies to your decision?
Check the letter rather than assuming. Both limits come from section 120 of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, and the shorter one catches people out.
Return to work, work transition, labour market re-entry and re-employment decisions carry 30 days. Entitlement, loss of earnings, health care and permanent impairment carry 6 months. Where a single letter carries two decisions with different limits, the six month limit applies to both. Separately, you have 21 days to object to your medical information being released to your employer.
If you have already missed the 30 days, ask the WSIB for an extension rather than assuming the door has closed.
4. Should you play down your symptoms at a WSIB assessment?
No, and this is the mistake that costs the most money over the longest period.
Understating pain to seem cooperative, or performing your best hour at an appointment, puts a lower number into a file that follows you for years. Assessments arranged by the board exist to produce a report for someone else, so the clinician records what you present on the day.
Describe an ordinary day and a bad day rather than the day you are having because adrenaline got you to the appointment. Accuracy is not complaining.
5. What if modified duties are beyond what you can do?
Say so at the time you are offered them, and say it in writing.
Attempting duties you cannot sustain tends to end in one of two places. A second injury, or a report that you declined suitable work after you stop. Neither helps. If a plan does not match what your treating provider said you can do, that mismatch is the point to raise, and you can ask the WSIB to decide whether the work offered is suitable.
6. Does the WSIB know about all your jobs?
Earnings from every job covered by the WSIB can be counted when your benefit rate is worked out. Workers with a second job routinely mention only the one where they were hurt.
Loss of earnings is paid at 85% of your pre-injury net average earnings, on earnings up to the 2026 ceiling of $121,700. A benefit calculated on one job when you held two is wrong for the whole life of the claim, and the correction is far simpler at the start.
7. What happens if you quit during a WSIB claim?
You may give away a protection you did not know you had.
Where a re-employment obligation exists, meaning you had at least one year of continuous service and your employer regularly employs 20 or more workers, that employer must take you back. If you voluntarily quit, no further re-employment obligation generally applies. A workplace that has become intolerable is a real problem worth solving, and resigning is rarely the cheapest way to solve it. Get advice first.
8. Is a WSIB denial letter final?
No. A denial is a decision, which makes it a thing you object to rather than a thing you accept.
The letter should state what was decided, why and how to object. If any of those three is missing or unclear, ask for it in writing. What decides an objection is rarely how well it is argued. It is whether a record exists showing what you reported, when you reported it, what your providers observed and what you could and could not do week by week.
What are you allowed to do during a WSIB claim?
You are allowed to choose your own health professional rather than one selected by your employer.
You are allowed to object within 21 days to your medical information going to your employer.
You are allowed to ask for any decision in writing and to ask which provision it rests on.
You are allowed to report a new or worsening symptom at any point in the claim.
You are allowed to bring someone with you to an appointment or a meeting and to take notes while you are there.
What should you record during a WSIB claim?
Six things. Each one closes off a mistake above before it happens.
- The forms and their dates. When you filed your Form 6, when your employer filed the Form 7 and your claim number once it arrives.
- Every decision letter and the date on it. The date printed on the letter starts the clock, not the date you opened the envelope.
- Symptoms, daily. On a scale you use consistently, including the ordinary days rather than only the bad ones.
- Appointments. Date, provider, what was discussed, what was recommended and any limits set on your activity.
- Return to work offers and what actually happened. Duties, hours, what you attempted and how you felt during and after.
- Every job and every dollar. All employers covered by the WSIB, not only the one where you were hurt, with the hours and pay at each. Your earnings before the injury and your earnings now. Every expense the injury has cost you, with receipts for prescriptions, equipment, travel and parking.
The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide holds all six and works with any board in Canada. The Ontario Workplace Injury Companion Guide holds the Ontario part, meaning the forms, the objection limits and the appeal route. Most of the mistakes on this page are made by people who had the information and no place to put it.
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The National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide covers what applies across Canada. Your Companion Guide from The Way Back series adds the board, the forms and the deadlines where you work.
Read next
- How Does a WSIB Claim Work in Ontario?
- Can You Be Fired While on a WSIB Claim in Ontario?
- How to Read a Denial Letter and What to Do Next
Last verified August 2026. Objection limits are set by section 120 of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act and re-employment conditions by section 41, both applying in Ontario only. Benefit rates and the maximum insurable earnings ceiling are Ontario figures and the ceiling is adjusted each January. Other provinces and territories set their own rules through their own boards. Hurt Square Companion Guides are tools for documenting your own recovery. They are not legal, medical or insurance advice.