What to Watch For if You Are an Independent Contractor
According to a New York Times article, the feds are cracking down on employers that classify employees as independent contractors.
Continue Reading...What To Do When You Are Injured On The Job
When injured on the job be sure and follow these steps:
- Immediately report the injury to your supervisor. Make sure that the injury is properly logged or recorded by your supervisor.
- Request medical attention for your injury and take note of the names of the doctors who are treating you. Remember, you are not required to see a company doctor.
- Make sure to get contact information from any witnesses. If possible, use your phone to take photographs of the accident site. Take photographs of your injuries as well, both before and after treatment.
- Do not sign anything, or give any recorded statements, until you have spoken with an experienced workers compensation lawyer. You may be signing away your rights without even knowing it.
- If you are injured, stop working until released to work by your doctor. Additional labor could severely aggravate your injury. If your doctor releases you to light duty, you do not have to return to work unless your employer agrees in writing to abide by your doctor's restrictions.
- Contact an experienced workers compensation attorney as soon as possible after your injury.
Top Ten Most Unusual Comp Cases in 2009
Larson's Workers' Compensation Reporter, the premier name in workers' compensation legal reporters, has issued their list of the top ten most bizarre or unusual workers compensation cases in 2009. Among the highlights:
An Illinois man was awarded benefits for a displaced fracture through the right femoral neck when he attempted to dislodge a bag of potato chips from a vending machine for a female worker by giving the machine a "shoulder block."
A Missouri court upheld a denial of death benefits to the beneficiaries of a workers comp fraud investigator who was killed in a car wreck on the job. Alcohol and speeding were determined to be the causes.
Its important to remember that these lists are sensational by nature and not indicative of most workers compensation claims. Nevertheless, they do make for interesting reading, especially for those of us in the field of workers' compensation law.
Why Workers Comp is Important
Texas is the only state that doesn't make workers compensation insurance mandatory for at least some employers. This is a shame, because workers' compensation insurance is beneficial to both employees and employers as Sally Spooner, a school teacher, and the Cody School District, her employer, recently found out.
The Cody School District is the local school district in Cody, Wyoming. Recently, the district decided to discontinue providing workers compensation insurance for their employees as the superintendent and school board felt that $175,000.00 in annual premiums was not a good way to save money for the district. They couldn't have been more wrong. One of their teachers, Sally Spooner, slipped and fell and ended up having to have her right let amputated just below the knee after suffering serious injuries. Now, this incident will likely cost the district far in excess of what they would have paid in annual workers' comp premiums.
This incident illustrates the give and take of the workers' compensation system. For employers, workers' compensation insurance protects them from the big money judgments for pain and suffering, loss of future earning capacity, loss of consortium, disfigurement, etc. Typically, workers' compensation claimants recover their medical expenses, lost wages and some kind of future impairment benefit. They downside for the employer is that workers compensation is no-fault insurance. Thus, even if an employee is injured through no fault of the employer, the insurance compensates the claimant. For the claimant, obviously they receive benefits without having to prove fault--and typically those benefits start being paid very quickly versus the length of time it would take if you had to prove negligence in a court of law. However, the injured claimant gives up the right to sue their employer for their employer's negligence in causing the injury. Thus, the injured party cannot recover the big money damages that we often hear about in the news. Thus system serves both parties equally. But more importantly, providing workers' compensation insurance for employees is the right thing to do. Just look at the comments to the hyperlinked article about Ms. Spooner, above, to see what I mean.
