Workplace Injuries: When No-Fault Becomes Their Fault
Brian O Sutter
Personal Injury
Workers’ compensation insurance is a requirement in all 50 states for almost every employer, from the local business with only a handful of workers to the megacorporation whose headcount exceeds that of many a small nation.The main benefit of this insurance is the no-fault system which doesn’t bother keeping track of the specific reason for the accident. Instead, so long as no one’s committing fraud, the workers’ comp benefits pay out no matter what.
However, this doesn’t mean that the employer is absolved of all sins. If the company or person in charge caused the accident through negligence, either by creating an unsafe condition or by failing to inform its employees of an unsafe condition, then you may be better off pursuing a workplace injury lawsuit.
Classic Cases
One of the most common kinds of workplace injury is unwitting exposure to toxic chemicals. Every workplace which uses potentially hazardous chemicals needs to have a Material Safety Data Sheet, or MSDS, for each substance in easy reach of anyone expected to work with these chemicals. This sheet contains a number of important details, such as flammability, toxicity, whether it’s an acid or a base, and what to put it out with if it catches on fire.
Still, noncompliance with OSHA standards isn’t the main driving force behind toxicity cases. Instead, it’s the hazardous building materials that went in during construction but never came back out. Lead paint is a good example, especially if there are children involved, and asbestos insulation is surprisingly common even today. In fact, the court case that really kicked off the wave of asbestos litigation managed to prove that an insulation supplier knew about the hazards of the material even before a widely publicized article made this fact irrefutable. Ever since then, a fair number of landlords and other building owners have avoided the expense of replacing the asbestos and instead they tempt fate, opening themselves up to a potentially significant loss in court and possibly even charges of criminal negligence.
Falling Through The Cracks
Another good reason to go for a workplace injury lawsuit instead of settling for workers’ comp is if you aren’t technically an employee. Workers’ compensation insurance only applies to the actual employees of a business, and if your official status is something else, like a contractor or a consultant, then pursuing a lawsuit may be the only way you can expect to get any compensation at all from an injury.
The true fault behind the accident may also lie with a third party, in which case both you and your employer may have cause to pursue litigation. For instance, if a delivery person were to stack his or her boxes in an unsafe manner and they were to collapse on you, causing a concussion and a sprained ankle, then you might want to sue the person in question and possibly their parent company which may have given its employee insufficient training. Then again, if you are the delivery person in question and the boxes you’re supposed to move collapse onto you, you may be in a position to do the same thing for the same reasons.
If you live in or near Ft. Meyers, Sarasota, or Port Charlotte and you’ve suffered a workplace injury, and if you need help working your way through the workers’ compensation claims process or you think that workers’ comp isn’t enough in your case, then contact All Injuries Law Firm today. We’ll gladly provide you with a free case consultation to help you map out your options, and we’ll do our best to get you the compensation you deserve.