Work Injury Claims Law

Workers Compensation Injury Claims Employers' Responsibilities

In most states, employers are mandated to provide insurance for their employees and get it from a workers' compensation insurance carrier. Larger companies can act as their own insurance companies and provide for the medical needs of their employees while smaller companies composed of less than three employees are not required to provide workers' compensation insurance.

When a worker gets injured, he or she files a claim with the insurance company or to their self-insuring employer. A self-insuring employer pays for the medical and disability claims of their employees in accordance to a state-approved formula. Only employers who don't fall in limited or exempted categories are excused from providing for medical benefits. Others who don't fall in exempted categories but do not provide workers' compensation insurance or benefits are must pay fines, undergo criminal prosecution, or become civilly liable.

Penalties:

If an employer fails to provide the workers' compensation insurance benefits, it can result in fines; criminal prosecution, personal liability to pay for workers' comp benefits; and an employee suing the employer instead of filing a claim.

Duties and obligations:

Aside from providing workers' compensation coverage, most states require that employers also do the following:

  • Post a notice to show that they are in compliance with workers' compensation laws.

  • Provide immediate treatment for employees who suffer on-the-job injuries.

  • Furnish additional medical attention in cases when an injured worker is not able to choose a doctor or has advised the employer in writing of his lack of desire to so.

  • Complete an injury report and send it to the nearest workers' compensation board office.

  • Compose a written report of each accident that results in personal injury that causes a loss of work time.

  • Comply with the requests for more information about injured workers by the workers' comp board or by the insurance company.

Employer should not retaliate:

A workers laws provide financial help and time off from work for injured employees seeking compensation and also protect employers. Some employers may dislike certain employees and at times, discriminate against them for filing workers' comp benefit claims.

To protect employees from their discriminating employers, many states prohibit such acts of punishing, discriminating, or discharging employees because they exercised their rights under a worker's compensation law. They can sue their employers for the tort of "retaliatory discharge."

Employee who feel that they have been discriminated against or discharged due to them exercising their rights may file a claim against their employer for retaliatory discharge. In a discharge suit, the employee needs to prove that the termination was wrong or not valid. The employee does not necessarily need to prove that the worker's comp claim was the only reason for the termination. It is a way of knowing whether the employer's act of discharging the employee was the result of the employee's exercise of workers' compensation rights.
Getting a good worker’s compensation lawyer on your side increases your chances of success and will insure that you are protected from employer's discriminatory conduct after the injury happened and before the workers' comp benefit is filed.