The main difference between a workers’s compensation and personal injury lawsuit in Wisconsin is that, in workers’s compensation, it is a no fault statute. Meaning that it does not matter whether it was your fault, or the fault of someone else, or the fault of the employer, as to whether or not you have a compensible claim. In the personal injury world, fault and liability is everything. So knowing who, uh, who was at fault, for example, in a motor vehicle accident, can determine liability and can determine whether or not you have a compensible claim. So fault is really the main difference between the two.
Additionally is the difference in benefits. Under the workers compensation laws in Wisconsin, you’re looking at statutory benefits of lost wages, permanency, and medical expenses. In the personal injury world, not only are you looking at loss wages and medical expenses, but you’re also looking at pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and some other benefits that are available to.
