Self Caused Injury at Work

Worker’s comp claims are designed to protect employees from injuries that happen on the job. Unlike personal injury lawsuits, in most states the employer does not have to be negligent in order for a worker to be entitled to worker’s compensation benefits. Furthermore, an employee who is injured as a result of his or her own negligence is also not usually precluded from recovering. This is what is known as a “no fault” system.

What happens if an injury is my fault?

In the vast majority of cases, if the injury is your own fault, you are still entitled to recover for worker’s compensation. There are two notable exceptions to this:

• You are drunk or under the influence of drugs while injured: If you are intoxicated at work and are injured when you are incapacitated, then you are not entitled to recover under worker’s compensation laws in most cases.
• You expressly violate company policy: If a reasonable employee would have been aware of company policy, and you violated this policy and were injured as a result, in most cases you are not entitled to recover damages under worker’s compensation laws.

Determining Liability

Because worker’s compensation is a no-fault system, liability is not determined on the basis of the employer or the employee behaving negligently. Instead, employees are entitled to recover for injury when

• The injury arose out of the employment: This means the job must have somehow caused or led to the injury. It does not have to be a direct correlation. For example, if you work in a factory and cut your finger off using your machine, obviously you can recover because the injury is directly correlated to the job that you were hired to do. However, injuries that occur because of the type of industry are also covered. This means that if you work outdoors and get struck by lightening, you can recover for the lightening strike under a worker’s compensation lawsuit if you can prove that you were much more likely to be struck by lightening as a result of your job.
• The injury arose in the context of employment: This means you were doing your job or something work related, when the injury happened. If you are at a company party and you hurt yourself, this may not constitute a job related injury. However, if you are required to be at that same company party in order to entertain a client and you injure yourself, then the injury may be considered to have arisen in the context of your employment because you were required by your job to be there.

If these two conditions are met, you can still recover for an injury even if it was your fault, as long as you were not intoxicated or violating an expressly stated company mandate.

Filing A Worker’s Compensation Claim

You are required to notify your employer within a reasonable period of time after becoming injured. This period of time varies by state and ranges from “as soon as practical” to over a year. The type of injury may also impact the amount of time you have to file a claim- an illness that does not appear for several years, an injury that incapacitates you, or an injury that leads to death may have a longer statute of limitations.

Once you have notified your employer, appropriate forms and documentation need to be submitted. The insurer then uses these forms to determine whether you are entitled to compensation. Your negligence should not be an issue in making this determination, and mere employee negligence is not an acceptable reason for denial of benefits.

The insurer will notify you whether your claim has been approved or denied, and you will find out either what benefits you will be receiving or what your deadline is for appealing a denial of benefits.

Finding Legal Help

Filing a worker’s compensation claim can be complex under the best of circumstances, and grows even more complicated when liability is at stake. You should contact an experienced worker’s compensation attorney who can help you understand the specifics of filing a worker’s compensation claim, and can help you to better determine who is liable for the injuries you incurred on the job.