Posted in Wisconsin Workers Compensation Related News
Workers’ Compensation Lawyer
If you are injured while on the job, it is natural to want some compensation. Whether or not your job is considered dangerous, you should not have to pay for your own medical expenses when you were only injured because of work-related activities. It is common for workers to wonder whether or not they can sue their employer to cover their medical expenses. This short guide will go over the straightforward answer to this question.
Compensation for Workers
If you are injured while working, filing a lawsuit against your employer is almost never an option. However, the only reason this is the case is because there is a different avenue for you to receive the compensation you are owed. In fact, the system that is in place is much better than filing a lawsuit. It will compensate you much faster in most cases, there is a much small chance of failing to receive compensation, and you do not have to fight to have your case won. The system is called workers’ compensation.
Under the workers’ comp system, you simply have to report your injury to your employer, who then must submit the necessary injury reports to the state workers’ comp agency or to their workers’ comp insurance company, depending on the specific way workers’ comp is handled in your state of employment. The laws do vary greatly from one state to the next, but every state requires employers to have a workers’ comp system in one way or another. Because workers’ comp is an option, you can almost never file a lawsuit for an injury.
The Exception to the Rule
There is only one exception to the rule that workers cannot sue their employers for injury compensation. If the employer acted maliciously with the explicit intent to cause harm to a worker, then legal action should be taken against that employer. This would be a criminal case, rather than a civil one, which is why the lawsuit is not superseded by the workers’ comp case. As you would expect, this is a very rare occurrence.
If your employer forgot to submit your workers’ comp case, or willingly chose not to, then you should report him or her to the workers’ comp agency in your state. This failure of their employment responsibilities may make a lawsuit an option. The very first thing you should do in this case, however, is to speak with a workers’ compensation lawyer. A legal professional will be able to explain what your options are in your state.
A worker’s compensation lawyer, from our friends at Franks, Koenig & Neuwelt may help get it sorted out.
