If you are hurt in a work accident and cannot return to your job for a while, you might struggle to support yourself while you recover and deal with expensive medical bills. The law has carved out legal channels to help injured workers, and you may be eligible for Workers’ Compensation benefits.
To be eligible for benefits, your injuries must be sufficiently work-related. If you are at your normal place of work performing normal job duties, and an accident is more clearly work-related. However, others may be injured outside their normal workplace, and they may have to work harder to prove that their injuries are eligible for benefits. Potential benefits may include a portion of your lost earnings, compensation for medical bills, and compensation for specific injuries like lost limbs or severe scarring. If your claim is unfortunately denied, we can file an appeal and hopefully get a different outcome.
Call the Law Office of John J. Sheehan at (617) 925-6407 and ask our Workers’ Compensation lawyers for a free initial case evaluation.
Injuries Eligible for Workers’ Compensation
Being injured might not be enough to receive Workers’ Compensation benefits. The accident and your injuries should be related to your job for you to be eligible for benefits. If you cannot return to your job due to an accident that happened outside of work, it might not be covered by Workers’ Compensation.
Your injuries must be sufficiently work-related to be covered by Workers’ Compensation. Generally, an accident may be considered related to your work if it happens in your normal place of business while you are performing normal job duties. However, there may be situations where work-related accidents happen outside of your usual workplace.
One possibility is that you are injured while traveling for work. You might be hurt at an airport or in a hotel, but the accident may still be considered sufficiently work-related if it happened while you were in furtherance of your job duties.
Accidents that are not sufficiently work-related often happen outside of work hours while employees are on their own time.
Who May File a Workers’ Compensation Claim in Pembroke?
Starting a Workers’ Compensation claim is a little trickier than many people might think. Not only are certain workers ineligible for benefits, but employers, rather than workers, are often the ones who initiate the claim.
Workers must be considered employees within the meaning of the law to be eligible for Workers’ Compensation benefits. Employees are defined under Mass. Gen. Laws Ch 152 § 1(4) and typically include most people working in service to another for pay under some contract for hire.
Certain professionals are excluded from this definition, and independent contractors are not considered employees. Talk to your attorney if you are not sure whether you are covered.
There is no requirement regarding how long you must be employed. Employees are covered by their employer’s Workers’ Compensation insurance starting on the day they begin work. If your boss tells you that you cannot file a claim because you have not been working long enough, our Workers’ Compensation attorneys will help you file one on your own.
Workers’ Compensation Benefits in Winthrop
Benefits may be approved for various costs related to your injuries, including but not necessarily limited to hospital bills, lost earnings, and special injuries that are more permanent or disfiguring.
Medical Expenses
Hospital bills are infamously costly, and you might be dealing with steep bills after a work-related accident. Workers’ Compensation may cover all reasonably necessary medical treatments, which can be a huge relief for injured workers.
Remember, the key here is that medical care must be reasonably necessary to be covered by Workers’ Compensation. If the insurance company believes certain treatments are not reasonably necessary, like cosmetic surgery to eliminate scarring, they might refuse to cover it.
Lost Income
You may lose significant income while you are unable to work because of your injuries, and Workers’ Compensation benefits may cover a portion of these earnings.
How much compensation you receive depends on your ability to work and whether your disability is permanent or temporary.
Employees who are totally incapacitated with permanent disabilities may receive two-thirds of their average weekly wage for as long as they are unable to work. Some workers continue receiving benefits indefinitely.
If you are totally incapacitated but your injuries will eventually recover, you may receive 60% of your average weekly wage for no longer than 156 weeks. After that, your benefits may be terminated unless you can prove you are still incapacitated.
Some injured workers are only partially disabled and may still be able to work, albeit in a lesser capacity. In such cases, you may receive 60% of the difference between your average weekly wage from before you were injured and your new average wage while working in a lesser capacity. This is capped at 70% of what you would get for total temporary incapacity, and the amount of weeks can vary.
Special Injuries
You might have injuries that cause serious disfigurement or permanent alterations to your body and health. Serious accidents sometimes lead to lost limbs, impaired senses, or damage to bodily functions. These injuries may be permanent and may be eligible for compensation in addition to the benefits mentioned above.
How much money you may receive for special injuries varies based on the nature of the injuries. For example, under Mass. Gen. Laws Ch. 152 § 36, a worker who loses their hand at the wrist may receive compensation worth their average weekly income multiplied by 34.
What if My Employer Does Not Have Workers’ Comp Insurance?
In Massachusetts, employers must have Workers’ Compensation insurance to cover injured employees. If they do not, they may be in violation of the law. Matters may become more complicated if an employee becomes injured on the job and there is no insurance to provide them with benefits.
If your employer does not have insurance to cover your injuries, your attorney can help you file a personal injury lawsuit to recover fair compensation. Generally, such lawsuits are prohibited if Workers’ Compensation otherwise covers employees. However, this prohibition does not apply if there is no insurance to prove coverage.
Call Our Pembroke Workers’ Comp Attorneys for Assistance
Call the Law Office of John J. Sheehan at (617) 925-6407 and ask our Workers’ Compensation lawyers for a free initial case evaluation.