What Is Workers Compensation?
State laws that address employees hurt while working are usually called workers compensation laws. Before these laws were written, a worker hurt at work would file a traditional lawsuit against their employer to receive payments for their injury. These lawsuits were challenging because the courts weren’t always persuaded that an employer’s negligence caused the worker’s injury. If a court did find for an employee, the employer would be ordered to pay “make whole” damages to the worker. Easing this legal system was the purpose of workers compensation.
This system could provide very fluid and inequitable monetary damages to workers, including paying them for the remainder of their lives. And, as noted, it was challenging for employees to file suits that involved proving employer fault.
To address these complaints, the various states developed new systems to address payments to employees for workplace injuries. Called workers compensation, these new laws become the exclusive remedy for injured workers seeking money from their employers.
Although each state has written its worker compensation law differently, they usually share five elements. First, the employee and employer must be subject to the law. Next, the worker must have been injured. An accident must have caused the worker’s injury. The accident and injury had to have arisen out of the employer-employee relationship. Finally, they must have happened in the course of that relationship.
Many employers and workers are covered by state workers compensation laws. Various states exclude different occupational classifications (like household employees) or whole industries (like agricultural companies or government). And some exclusions are made based on company size, not including employers with less than three workers for example.
Generally, all states require a physical injury. Physical being the requirement.
That physical injury must have been the result of a one-time accident. Because the working world is constantly evolving, state lawmakers continue to adapt this element. One change has been to include diseases that are transmitted in the workplace, like when a hospital worker is accidentally exposed to HIV. Another change includes conditions that develop through repetition over time, like carpal tunnel disease.
The arising out of employment element looks at the risks of the injury involved. If the risk is clearly associated with the employment context, it is generally said to arise out of the employment. For example, there’s a fair risk of a tree branch falling from a tree and hitting a logger in the head. The same cannot be said for a doctor. The injury would likely arise out of employment for the logger, but probably not the doctor.
Finally, the course of employment elements examines if the employee was working when the accident happened. Being on the clock, and the time and location of the accident are considered. But the totality of the circumstances will often dictate when an injury appears to be outside of the traditional work context.
If a worker can show that his injury meets all five of the above elements, he will recover monetary damages based on a preset rate included in the workers compensation law.
These the purpose of workers compensation systems was to eliminate court battles, but those battles continue over the various issues involved. For those seeking information related to their own or their employees’ work site injuries, they are encouraged to meet with a workers compensation lawyer licensed to practice in their jurisdiction.
Do you believe you need a workers compensation attorney? If so, then we know how to find workers comp attorneys with only a click of that button. Just check us out and see if you can find the right ones.
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