Serious injuries often happen as the result of someone being negligent. When you suffer an injury at work as a result of someone else’s negligence, what happens?
This article discusses how negligence interacts with Georgia workers compensation cases. It addresses three of the main ways that negligence can impact a workers compensation case and provides information about what happens in each situation.
What happens when I get injured at work because someone else was negligent?
The most important thing to understand is that you should receive workers compensation benefits. Workers compensation covers you for injuries while you are performing your job.
Workers compensation is referred to as a “no fault system”. This means that it should cover you when you are hurt doing your job whether the injury is someone else’s fault, your fault, or nobody’s fault.
But, does something different happen when someone else causes your injury by their negligence. Usually, when you get injured as a result of someone else’s negligence, you can pursue a personal injury case. Can you pursue a personal injury case when someone else’s carelessness causes your on the job injury.
The answer to this question is, “It depends on who it is.” Certain people have immunity from a personal injury claim when you get hurt on the job. The main people who have immunity are your employer and your co-workers.
If your co-workers carelessness causes your on the job injury, you generally cannot sue them in a personal injury case. You get workers compensation instead. The same rule applies for your employer.
Who can I sue for personal injury when I get hurt on the job?
Generally, you can sue people other than your employer (and co-workers) if their carelessness caused your injuries. Some of the common situations where this occurs are:
Car accidents – if you are driving your car doing your job and another driver is careless and causes a wreck, you can generally pursue a personal injury claim against that other driver
Faultily manufactured products – if you are injured as a result of a product or machine that was designed or manufactured defectively, you may be able to pursue a personal injury case against the company that designed or manufactured the machine
Faulty repairs – if another company was hired to repair a machine at your workplace and did not do the repairs correctly, you may be able to sue that company in personal injury for your injuries that were caused by the faulty repairs
These are just a few of the common situations where you might be able to pursue a personal injury case when someone else’s negligence causes your injuries. There are certainly others as well.
The important thing to remember is that this personal injury claim does not replace your workers compensation claim. You can likely pursue both the personal injury case and the workers compensation case in these situations.
What if my employer or the insurance company is negligent in handling my workers compensation claim?
I see this a lot. Here are a few examples of some common things I see:
Your employer tells you to use your health insurance instead of filing your injury on workers compensation
Can you sue your employer or the insurance company for this negligence? Unfortunately, Georgia courts have currently held that you do not have a separate right to a lawsuit for this negligence.
The courts have instead said that your remedy for this negligence is in your rights under the workers compensation system. Generally, this means you can receive late penalties. Also, if you hire an attorney, a judge can choose to assess your attorney’s fees against the insurance company in certain situations. Finally, penalties can be assessed against your employer or the insurance company for failing to follow the rules.
What if a workers compensation doctor or other medical provider’s negligence causes me additional injuries?
Medical treatment for your injuries is one of the main benefits provided under Georgia’s workers compensation laws. The intent of this treatment is to get you better. Unfortunately, sometimes treatment can cause you additional harm.
When your treatment with a worker compensation doctor causes additional harm, there are two important things to know. The first is that the workers compensation insurance company remains responsible for the additional harms cause by negligent medical treatment. The rationale is that the workers compensation injury caused the additional injury by the medical provider since that additional occurred as a result of you getting treatment with the workers compensation doctor.
The second important thing to know is that you may also be able to pursue a separate case in addition to the workers compensation case. This separate case would be against the doctor or other medical provider for the negligence that caused your additional injuries. One of the most common examples of this type of case is a medical malpractice case.
What if I have other questions about workers compensation?
Georgia’s workers compensation system can be very confusing. You have to worry about getting the treatment you need and paying your bills while also worrying about not missing any deadlines that could cause you to lose your right to receive workers compensation benefits.
If you have questions, I would recommend that you try to get answers. To find out more about how to schedule a time to talk to me about your workers compensation questions, just read this short article.
Jason Perkins is an attorney who specializes in representing injured workers. He regularly publishes videos and write blog articles about Georgia’s workers compensation system and issues that are important to injured workers and their families.
To be notified of Jason’s new workers compensation videos, subscribe to his Georgia Workers Compensation Video Series channel on YouTube by clicking the subscribe button below.
Amazing! Jason and his team were very helpful and had the best communication by far. Walked me though every step with great detail and had answers for any question I had. They handled my case better then I could imagine, it was a weird case and they stayed on top of it and kept me updated every step of the way! Highly recommend this Team! Thanks so much to Jason and his Awesome team!-Brittney
I absolutely love this group of attorneys, when I was at my lowest they did everything they could to help me get justice for my injury. I believe if I were to have never picked my phone up and called the amazing group that helped me I definitely would not have received my idea of rights. If you have an issue and are just not sure please understand that they will help you, stay in contact, answer any question you have, and for sure get you the justice you deserve I thank them from the bottom of my heart and I will definitely refer them to anyone who has been hurt because they most definitely care about their work and clients.
If you must get a lawyer involved, you’d do well to work with Jason Perkins and his team at Perkins Studdard Law.They were thorough in gathering information and in sharing all the steps in the workers comp process specific to my case. Jason and the team were responsive to my bevy of questions and concerns.I appreciated the informative videos and consultations provided by Jason over video meetings and multiple phone calls.I hope I’m never injured on the job again. However, if I am and if my employer responds as my previous employer did, I’ll contact Perkins Studdard Law immediately to handle the case.
Everyone at Perkins Studdard was kind and professional. They were always extremely responsive and answered all questions that I had and followed up to make sure I had an understanding of what was going on along with emailing videos to explain every step of my case so I would know what to expect and be prepared. Jason is a very genuine person and I trusted him with my case. He answered so many questions for me even before I retained him as my WC lawyer. I highly recommend him and his associates at Perkins Studdard.
