If you were hurt at work, you can often get your employer to pay for damages through Workers’ Compensation. This is different from a lawsuit, and this system forces your employer to pay for damages regardless of whether they caused your injuries or not.
Our attorneys can help you file your claim, fight your employer for full compensation, and appeal any denials. There are damages you may be entitled to in a separate lawsuit that you cannot claim in a Workers’ Compensation case, but our lawyers can advise you on the best route to compensation and handle all proceedings.
For your free case assessment, call (617) 925-6407 to speak with the Law Office of John J. Sheehan’s Workers’ Compensation lawyers today.
Lawsuits vs. Workers’ Compensation in Bellingham
When you get injured, there might be multiple paths to recovery. When it comes to damages for a work injury, a lawsuit is sometimes allowed. The damages are a bit different, but Workers’ Compensation is almost always available, potentially making recovery easier or allowing recovery where a lawsuit would not be allowed.
Damages Available
Workers’ Compensation can pay you for your medical costs and reimburse you for a certain percentage of your lost wages. The wage rate changes depending on your level of disability and how long you will be out of work for.
In a lawsuit, you can claim 100% of lost wages and medical costs, but you have to recover them first before they are paid. Workers’ Compensation pays as these costs accrue.
One major difference is pain and suffering. These damages are not available in Workers’ compensation claims, though you can get additional specific injury compensation for certain permanent injuries.
When to Sue vs. When to Use Workers’ Comp
Workers’ Compensation is supposed to be available to all employees, except in certain industries (e.g., taxi drivers and realtors). Otherwise, the definition of “employee” broadly encompasses even many workers who might think they are “independent contractors” for other purposes.
Lawsuits cannot be filed against your employer, but they can be filed against outside parties, such as a driver who hit you while you were working. Since independent contractors have no “employer,” they can sue their client/the person who hired them.
Lawsuits also cannot be filed against yourself, but Workers’ Compensation can still cover you if you or your employer was at fault.
Who Decides Workers’ Compensation Claims?
With your initial filing, your employer determines whether your claim qualifies or not. The standards they should be checking against are whether your injury was work-related and whether your injury is disabling. If these are both true, then they should pay.
However, when the party who is supposed to pay up gets to decide whether they will pay or not, they will almost always deny the claim. To overturn this, you can file with the Department of Industrial Accidents (DIA) and get your case before an administrative judge.
This judge will then decide the claim without a jury. Hearings and conferences can be held before reaching the final decision. You can then appeal this decision to the DIA Reviewing Board and eventually the courts.
When to Call a Lawyer
You should call a lawyer as soon as possible after your accident. You should certainly go to the hospital and get any care you need first, but you can even call us from your hospital bed if you want to.
From there, we can start collecting records and talking with doctors and witnesses right away to lock down evidence for your claim. There may be witnesses or video footage that we would lose track of if there is any delay in calling us.
We can help you file your initial claim and work to get it accepted in the first place, or else we can negotiate with your employer for a potential settlement.
If they still deny your case, we can file with the DIA and get your case before a judge as quickly as we can to try to get the case settled or decided faster.
What Work Injuries Are Covered Under Workers’ Comp?
Most injuries should be covered as long as they were work-related. This standard checks that the injury happened within the scope of your job or while you were on your employer’s property. Unsafe premises can be just as dangerous as unsafe equipment, and something like a slip and fall at work is just as viable as a claim for an amputation from work machinery.
Injuries are often classified into different categories, which have different levels of wage-loss benefits and different payment durations.
- Injuries are either total or partial, meaning you are completely unable to work or you face a partial limitation.
- Injuries are either temporary or permanent, depending on whether they will improve or not.
Permanent amputations or loss of function are paid in lump sums instead. These specific injuries get you the statewide average wage multiplied by a set number for each listed injury.
How Much is My Case Worth?
Many cases are paid out over time, but others settle for one lump sum. In either case, we need to know the value of your case in three categories:
Medical Coverage
For ongoing payments, the medical bills are charged to your employer’s insurance carrier as they come up. If you are still on Workers’ Compensation, you can still get treatment covered. In some cases, you may need ongoing care for life.
If you settle your case, we need to evaluate the future medical costs or else wait until you are maximally improved and will have no further care needs.
Wage-Loss Benefits
The amount paid for each type of benefit is different, ranging from 60% of your average wage to 67 2/3%.
There are maximum and minimum weekly benefit amounts set by law. This uses the statewide average wage as the weekly maximum and 20% of that amount as the minimum. A new statewide average is set every year on October 1.
Specific Injuries
As mentioned, specific injuries pay the statewide average wage times a number set by statute. Different injuries have different multipliers, such as 39 for a lost leg or 29 for a lost ear.
Call Our Workers’ Compensation Attorneys in Bellingham Today
For your free case evaluation, call our Workers’ Compensation attorneys at the Law Office of John J. Sheehan at (617) 925-6407.