Personal Injury Attorneys: Getting What You Deserve

Can You Sue for More Than Workers' Compensation?

2 April 2020

Laurie Flores

If you get injured at work, you generally have the right to have your employer compensate you for your injuries. This includes not just your medical bills but any lost wages and long-term disability. If you don't think you've received enough compensation, you do have the right to pursue more.

What is Your Employer's Responsibility to You?

Your employer has a responsibility to take reasonable steps to keep you safe. Even in a dangerous job, your employer must provide proper training and equipment to help reduce the risk and severity of injuries. When an employer doesn't meet those duties, employees have the right to receive compensation.

Employers also have to carry workers' compensation insurance by law. Workers' compensation insurance covers virtually all workplace injuries that arise during the normal course of business.

What Do You Need to Prove to Claim Workers' Compensation?

The only thing you need to prove to claim workers' compensation is that you got hurt while performing your job. Workers' compensation is a no-fault coverage. That means you don't need to prove that your employer or anyone else did something wrong.

Your employer's only defense to a worker's compensation claim is that you didn't get hurt at work. As long as you have witnesses or an accident report, your claim should succeed.

Does Workers' Compensation Cover Everything?

Workers' compensation may cover all of your financial losses in most situations. That's because your typical claims will be medical bills, lost wages, and disability, and those are what workers compensation insurance covers.

Workers' compensation is an insurance product, so there is the risk of an insurance company trying to deny or reduce your claim. If that happens, you can work with workers compensation lawyers to get everything you're entitled to.

What If Workers' Compensation Doesn't Pay Enough?

There may be some cases in severe injuries where the workers' compensation rules limit your compensation and you have a valid claim for additional lost wages, disability, or other expenses. If you can't increase your workers' compensation claim, you have the right to file a personal injury lawsuit for the additional amount.

Personal injury lawsuits do require that you prove the employer was negligent in some way. This might be due to improper training or lack of appropriate safety equipment. If you succeed, you can claim any type of related economic loss that's in excess of what you received from workers' compensation.

To learn more about how to get fully reimbursed for an injury at work, talk to local workers' compensation lawyers, such as Neifert Byrne & Ozga, today.

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