Hurt At Work? Why A Personal Injury Action Might Be Necessary

It's safe to say that most hurt workers will automatically turn to their employer's workers' compensation insurance coverage. Workers comp does do a good job of providing valuable benefits to workers. Some of those include payment for medical treatment and a partial disability wage. Unfortunately, there are three types of work-related injuries that may call for taking a different kind of legal action. Read on to find out more about taking civil action when things go very wrong at your workplace.

Why Take Legal Action?

When you are hurt through no fault of your own, you deserve compensation. Workers' compensation was created to help workers resolve issues with their employers after an injury or work-related illness. Rather than file a personal injury suit, hurt workers are supposed to file a claim with workers' compensation. Workers' compensation, however, like almost all insurance companies, are for-profit entities and they make no money when claims are filed. For the victim, that can mean denied claims, held-up benefits, and a lower level of compensation. Not only that, but one potentially valuable means of gaining compensation doesn't exist with workers' compensation – pain and suffering. You can, however, be paid for pain and suffering, medical expenses, lost wages, and more if you file a civil suit or seek personal injury damages. Not all injuries are appropriate for civil law, however. In many cases, you must seek help using workers' compensation. Below are three examples of times when you might want to speak to a personal injury lawyer first, however:

  1. Negligence - This term is used to describe a situation that goes beyond an accident. As a hurt worker, you can take action against your employer if you are certain that there was negligence involved. Perhaps your employer was negligent in training employees about the danger of a piece of equipment or perhaps they were negligent when they failed to perform property maintenance on some equipment.
  2. Toxic Exposure - The employer is supposed to keep the workplace safe – no matter what. Unfortunately, workers are exposed to toxic substances like coal mine dust and asbestos every day. Employers who use toxic and dangerous substances must have safeguards in place to protect employees or they could be sued by hurt workers.
  3. Defective Products - In this case, the hurt worker would be taking action against the manufacturer of a product or equipment. You can sue both the employer and the manufacturer if you can show that the employer knew about a defect and failed to warn or protect a worker.

When you take personal injury action, you are doing more than seeking compensation. You may be preventing other workers from the same fate. Speak to a personal injury lawyer, like those at Law Offices of Kevin R. Hansen and other firms, about your workplace accident to find out how to proceed.