Injury Caused By Co-Worker: Sue Or File For Workers Comp?

When you suffer an injury while at work or when your injury is the result of long-term conditions at your workplace, you are, in most cases, covered by worker’s compensation insurance held by your employer. However, in cases where a co-worker is the responsible party for your injury, or another similar circumstance, you have a couple of options when it comes to deciding whether or not to file a lawsuit, depending on the state you live in.

Workers Compensation

If your employer is required to supply worker’s compensation coverage, you can simply file a workers compensation claim to recover expenses caused by a work related injury. In most cases if you are covered under worker’s compensation, the court will consider your lawsuit against a co-worker to be frivolous in nature, and won’t grant you a reward. However, if you are considered an employee exempt from compensation insurance, such as an independent contractor, you may be granted a reward for your injuries in a court of law.

If your employer does provide compensation insurance for you but you still wish to file a lawsuit against the employer, your suit must be filed under extremely specific conditions in order to prove cause for the suit:

You will need to prove that your employer injured you by their own intent. In most cases this means you have to prove your employer committed an act with specific intent of injuring you. This will not apply to cases of negligence for covered employees. Broken equipment or poor work conditions will also not provide sufficient cause for a lawsuit.
You will have to show that your employer has inadequate compensation insurance, as mandated by either state or federal compensation law. If this is the case, you may have grounds to file a suit against them to recover losses suffered from your injury.

Suing Your Co-Worker

If you are injured at work by the negligence or intentional acts of a co-worker, typically the compensation law in your state will keep you from suing your co-worker, even if he acted on his own accord. The protection here comes from the fact that, since the worker is an agent of your employer, he is acting on your employer’s behalf while at work. Thus, in typical cases, if a co-worker injures you while you’re both working, worker compensation will generally be your only source of fiscal recovery.

Getting Help

You have to follow the guidelines set by the state you live in if you wish to file a lawsuit correctly. This means you generally need to consult with an experienced personal injury or workers compensation lawyer when your co-worker injures you in order to understand what the law is and how it applies in your situation.

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