Workers’ compensation or workers’ comp is a form of insurance that is designed to protect employees when they get injured or die while performing their duties at the workplace. While you may understand the basics of these laws, such as that you have to get compensated if you get hurt while doing your job, there are certain aspects of it that you may not be familiar with. Let’s take a look at the top five things you need to know about workers’ compensation laws.
Under workers’ comp, you can get compensated for lost wages and medical bills
When you get injured on the job and fail to go to work, you are entitled to a portion of your income. More precisely, you should expect to receive either temporary total disability (TTD) or temporary partial disability (TPD) to sustain you as you recover from the injury. Just remember that the amount of compensation you get after an incident usually depends on the amount of money you were making at your job and the number of dependents people who get affected by your resultant inability to work. Usually, the compensation is lower than the actual pay.
According to the compensation laws, however, your doctor is the one who can determine your eligibility for the benefits and document them. Moreover, you can expect your medical expenses and any necessary rehabilitation and retraining covered.
If you die as a result of a work injury, your family members may be entitled to compensation.
You can file a claim even you’re partially at fault, even if your employer is uninsured
You may be tempted to avoid filing a claim if you believe that you were partly the cause of a work-related injury that you experienced. According to the compensation laws, however, you should file a claim whether or not you are partly at fault for the injury as long as it was work-related.
Secondly, you can still claim the benefits if your employer is not insured. Although business owners are legally supposed to have workers’ compensation insurance, there are those who don’t have it. You can claim the benefits through the government, and your employer may face a fine for not having the insurance. In such a situation, you should seek the services of an L&I attorney, or any other experienced attorney near you to assess your situation and guide you through the steps required to file a claim through the government.
You cannot sue your employer if you suffer a work-related injury while on the job
When the workers’ compensation laws were established in 1908, one of the aims was to prevent businesses from going under as a result of employee lawsuits. These laws, therefore, require employees to relinquish their rights to sue their employers when they experience a work-related injury. As an employee, the only time you can sue your employer is when you have reason to believe that they were reckless, or they deliberately did something to hurt you.
It’s not similar to unemployment income or disability insurance
The workers’ compensation is totally different from disability insurance and unemployment income. You can receive the disability insurance payments and unemployment income whether you are injured inside your workplace or outside. On the other hand, the workers’ compensation laws only apply in situations where the worker suffers an injury at the workplace.
Many employers usually provide long-term or short-term disability insurance, which replaces a certain part of the base salary for up to one year, to extend the coverage provided by the workers’ compensation insurance.
Not everyone is eligible for workers’ compensation
If you’re an independent contractor or an employee who works from home, you should not expect to be covered under workers’ compensation laws if you suffer an injury. Similarly, you cannot receive this form of compensation if you’re the business owner, a farmer, casual worker, volunteer, and so on. Moreover, if you are a federal employee, you cannot be protected by the workers’ compensation laws of the state as you are already covered under the federal workers’ compensation laws.
If you’ve been asking yourself questions regarding workers’ comp, I hope you now have some or all of the answers. Just remember that you should always seek the advice of a qualified attorney to assist you to go about the process of filing a claim whenever the need arises.
