Georgelis Injury Law Firm

Workers’ compensation and personal injury laws have a common purpose — to compensate an injured party. These legal provisions are both designed to ensure accident victims do not pay for injury-related bills with their funds.

That said, these concepts have some differences. This article helps draw a fine line between worker’s compensation and personal injury.

These considerations are needful for differentiating workers’ compensation from personal injury:

Who Caused Your Injury?

If you sustained an injury in the line of duty, you might be eligible for worker’s compensation. Such damages may include, for example, one suffered from an industrial machine in a manufacturing plant.

In some cases, such injuries may not be linked directly to one’s typical office functions. For example, you would qualify for compensation if you sustained an electric shock from an exposed wire, dangling within the workplace.

Provided it happened at the workplace, the sufferer is eligible for worker’ compensation – negligence regardless.

Interestingly, the worker’s compensation does not favor only the employee; employers also benefit:

• The affected worker cannot sue the employer. So, this saves the organization from the time- and resource-consuming legal fights.

• On their part, the employee receives immediate compensation to handle resultant bills without trying to prove who was at fault and also bypassing the widely-dreaded legal processes.

Can I Sue Another for an Injury at Work?

Yes. But in limited situations. Although there’s no use finding who was at fault with the workers’ compensation system, some cases involve liability.

For instance, a third-party injurer may be held liable for damages if the said person is not your employer. The exception, however, is when your employer knows about the potential harm of the third party’s action or inaction. In this case, the burden falls back on your employer.

A Lancaster workers compensation attorney can walk you through the options as applicable in your local laws.

Workplace Injury Recovery

Here are likely compensations obtainable after a workplace injury:

• Medical treatment

• Wages payable during off-work recovery time

• Settlement in the case of permanent disability

• Retraining in the event victim cannot return to their job

• Death benefits paid to the victim’s survival

These compensations may vary across states. And, for compensation, victims can decide to choose a substantial one-off sum or weekly payments over an agreed duration. A seasoned best workers compensation lawyers in Lancaster, PA, will discuss your options and offer expert guidelines.

That said, personal injury lawsuits cover settlement for some damages not captured by the worker’s compensation benefits.

Categories of Personal Injury Damages

Personal injury damages are in three categories, including:

• Punitive Damages

Designed to punish defendants for egregious and malicious acts which resulted in the injury

• Economic Damages

Intended to make the party responsible pay for financial implications associated with the injury. If the injury is auto-related, consider getting a specialist Lancaster auto accident lawyer to maximize your economic compensation.

• Non-economic Damages

Compensation for emotional-related (non-financial) damages

Workers’ compensation, on the other hand, makes provision for neither of these damages. Instead, it considers only medical expenses and a part of lost remuneration.

Conclusion

One key difference between worker’s compensation and personal injury is that while personal injury seeks who to blame, worker’s compensation benefits come without tracing who was at fault.

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