Workers Comp Claims vs. Lawsuits

Workers’ compensation claims are different than lawsuits, and many clients do not understand that when they first come in.  When you take a job, by operation of law, you surrender your right to fight a negligence lawsuit against your employer.  You cannot do that.  It is taken away from you.

In exchange for giving up that right, you are absolutely entitled to collect workers’ compensation benefits if you are injured on the job regardless of whose fault it is.  It is a no-fault system.  Workers’ comp is three things and three things only.  It is medical benefits, temporary disability benefits and then permanent disability benefits.  If it is not one of those things, you are not going to be getting it in a workers’ compensation case.

The permanent disability benefit sounds like a lot until you start considering what it is not.  It does not include a lot of the things a client associates with a lawsuit such as pain and suffering and consequential damages.

It is heard in a different system.  There are no juries.  It is heard in a different court house under a different set of rules, and that is why there is a special certification for workers’ compensation attorneys because it is an entirely different system even though it comes under the general banner of personal injury.