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You May be Entitled to More Than Workers Comp


Industrial Accident Injuries Banned by Workers Comp, But Not All

According to the law in Maine, as in most states, claims for injuries which occur to a worker while on the job cannot be brought against the injured worker’s employer. This is a part of the Workers Compensation system which provides that when a worker is injured on the job the employer has to pay for the medical bills and also an amount to partially make up for lost income when the worker is out of work. This obligation on the part of the employer comes about no matter who or what caused the incident which resulted in the injury. Employers are required to carry workers comp insurance, so it is the insurance company that deals with the injured worker, not the employer directly.

In return for providing these benefits the law provides that the worker forfeits the right to sue the employer even though the incident may have been caused by the negligence of a fellow employee. This may seem fair enough, but the problem is that the workers comp benefits do not fully compensate the worker for all of the losses associated with an injury. For one thing the benefits fall far short of actual wages, so many people on workers comp struggle while out of work, not only while trying to recover with medical treatments and inability to carry on with the usual activities of their lives, but also with the financial burden of trying to make ends meet on reduced income.

In many cases, however, there is a way to obtain adequate compensation for the person who is on workers compensation. This occurs where the incident which caused the injury was caused, in whole or in part, by someone other than the employer. Since only the employer has immunity from being sued, the worker remains free to seek full compensation from anyone else who is at fault, even if that person is working on the same job, though for a different employer. This situation occurs often, especially on construction sites where there are always many sub-contractors, which means that the workers are employed by several, often many, different employers. There is also often the potential of successfully suing the manufacturer of defective material or equipment used on the job.

An example of this situation happened not long ago when a Nebraska jury awarded $21,131,633 to an ironworker who was seriously injured when a piece of construction material fell and struck his lifeline. He fell causing a burst fracture of his thoracic spine resulting in paralysis. His lawyer brought suit against the manufacturer of the lifeline alleging that the line was defective because of insufficient warnings that the lifeline could fail if struck.

Any worker who is seriously injured on the job should, in addition to getting the full workers compensation benefits the law provides, have an injury lawyer make an investigation into the possibility of securing fair compensation from a source other than the employer.

Lowry & Associates helps workers injured on the job, so if you have a comp claim, call us to see if we can get you more.




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