General information
If your injury is work-related, your employer is obliged to help you with lost wages and other type of compensation. Depending on the state where you live and work, your employers have certain obligations to carry employees’ compensation insurance, used to pay a portion of regular wages during the recovery process.
Apart from receiving their wages, an employee may be entitled to sue the employer for injuries sustained as a result of violation of safety regulations. However, before filing such a claim, it needs to be established beyond any reasonable doubt that the injury really is work-related. That means that it happened while the employee was performing their regular work duties or other activities on behalf of the employer. Even if you sustain an injury at, say, a company picnic or party outside company-owned property, it is considered to be work-related.
Compensation coverage
The laws differ depending on the state where the company is situated, so you need to check the applicable law. If you are eligible for workers’ comp, you can file a claim for benefits, but you are not allowed to sue the employer for the same injuries in court. However, if your employer doesn’t provide obligatory coverage, you may take the matter to court. The company might be fined and criminal charges pressed.
On the other hand, if you’re not eligible for workers’ comp benefits, you need to check whether your contract envisages arbitration for injuries and other disputes. In case of work-related injuries inflicted intentionally, you have every right to sue your employer, but those are extremely rare cases.
Why do I need a lawyer?
There are many examples of how an experienced personal injury lawyer might be useful. When you hire such an expert, an insurance company understands that you’re serious and well-prepared for the suit.
Also, the legal rules are by definition quite complex and you will face insurance company’s lawyers who deal with such matters on a daily basis. If you want to improve your chances, you need relevant help and support.
Next, your injuries might be such that your compensation should be quite different from the standard one and those are the territories unfamiliar to anyone but professionals.
Finally, you and an insurance company might fail to agree to settle the matter in good faith. That means a lawsuit is likely and the sooner you get ready, the better. Think about it this way: if your lawyer can get any compensation from the insurance company, even when they deduct their fee, you’ll be left with something.
How to find a good one?
The best case scenario is to get recommendation from someone you trust, who has had first-hand experience with similar matters. If you can’t find anyone like that, you may consult various lawyers and ask for referrals. By all means, interview several lawyers and present your case to them before making the final decision. Since most of them work on commission, i.e. they charge a percentage of your compensation, they will be more or less likely to accept your case, depending on how they perceive your chances.
As you can see, there are so many elements involved in the process of exercising your rights as a result of a work-related personal injury. The system is very complex and your lack of knowledge and full understanding of it might lead you to make a wrong step, which might mean you would no longer be eligible for compensation. If you don’t want that to happen because of a technicality, hiring a lawyer is a must.
