Posted in Personal injury
Workers’ compensation provides important protection after a workplace ladder fall. But it doesn’t cover everything. Pain and suffering isn’t compensable under workers’ comp. Full lost wages aren’t replaced, only two-thirds. And the insurer who pays workers’ compensation benefits has a stake in minimizing what they pay, which doesn’t always align with what a seriously injured worker actually deserves.
In many ladder injury cases, someone other than the employer shares responsibility for what happened. When that’s the case, a third-party personal injury claim may be available alongside workers’ compensation, and together these two paths can produce significantly more compensation than either one alone.
What a Third-Party Claim Is
A third-party claim is a personal injury lawsuit against someone who isn’t your employer. In Wisconsin, accepting workers’ compensation benefits from your employer’s insurer doesn’t prevent you from suing a responsible third party. Under Wisconsin Statute 102.29, workers can pursue both claims simultaneously.
The third-party claim goes through Wisconsin’s civil court system rather than the workers’ compensation administrative process. It allows recovery for damages that workers’ comp simply doesn’t address, including pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of enjoyment of life, and the full economic value of reduced earning capacity rather than just the partial wage replacement workers’ comp provides.
Who Qualifies as a Responsible Third Party
Several categories of third parties appear regularly in Milwaukee ladder injury cases:
Ladder manufacturers can be liable when a defective ladder or failed component contributed to the fall. Design defects, manufacturing errors, and failure to warn of known dangers can all support a product liability claim against the company that made or distributed the ladder.
General contractors often bear responsibility when a subcontractor’s employee is injured due to the general contractor’s failure to maintain safe working conditions on a job site. In construction, general contractors have broad duties to maintain site safety that extend to workers employed by their subs.
Property owners may be liable when a ladder fall happens at a location owned by someone other than the employer and that owner’s failure to maintain safe conditions contributed to the accident.
Equipment rental companies can face liability when a rented ladder was defective, improperly maintained, or provided without adequate safety information.
Other subcontractors whose work created an unsafe condition, such as leaving a wet or uneven surface near a ladder’s base, can be responsible for falls that result from those conditions.
What Third-Party Claims Can Recover That Workers’ Comp Cannot
The distinction between workers’ compensation and a third-party civil claim matters most when the injuries are serious and the financial impact is long-term. Third-party claims allow recovery for:
- Full lost wages rather than the two-thirds replacement workers’ comp provides
- Pain and suffering for the physical experience of the injury and recovery
- Emotional distress, anxiety, depression, and PTSD that develop following a serious fall
- Loss of enjoyment of life when the injury prevents activities that mattered before
- Full lifetime lost earning capacity projected by vocational and economic experts
- Loss of consortium for a spouse whose relationship has been significantly affected
These categories don’t exist in workers’ compensation at all. For workers with serious injuries, they often represent the most significant financial losses the injury produced.
How the Two Claims Work Together
When both a workers’ compensation claim and a third-party claim are pursued, the workers’ compensation insurer typically has a right to reimbursement from the third-party recovery for benefits already paid. An attorney manages that lien to minimize what the insurer recovers and maximize what the injured worker actually receives.
Hickey & Turim, S.C. evaluates ladder injury cases thoroughly to determine whether third-party claims are available alongside workers’ compensation. If you were injured in a workplace ladder fall in the Milwaukee area, reach out to a Milwaukee ladder injury at work lawyer to understand every path to recovery that may apply to your situation.
