You may wonder whether you have a workers’ compensation or personal injury claim after an injury at work. The answer depends on whether you were an employee or a contractor, how the accident happened, and who was at fault. You could have a workers’ compensation claim, a third-party personal injury claim, or even both. An experienced workplace injury lawyer from Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer can help you figure it all out.
Contact our law firm now for a free consultation about your case with one of our skilled work injury attorneys. We’ll review the details of the incident, explain all your options for seeking the compensation you deserve, and handle the legal process for you so you can focus on your health.
What Is a Workers’ Compensation Claim?
A workers’ compensation claim is a request for medical benefits and partial wage replacement under your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance policy. If you are an employee in Kentucky, you are most likely covered by workers’ compensation if you suffer an injury on the job.
Workers’ comp is a type of no-fault insurance that provides benefits for injured workers without having to prove someone else was negligent. In exchange for no-fault benefits, injured employees are barred from suing their employers. The system is meant to benefit both parties by providing employees with easy access to financial benefits while protecting employers from the costs associated with lawsuits.
What Is a Personal Injury Claim?
A personal injury claim is a lawsuit against the party or parties responsible for your injury. When most people think of personal injury lawsuits, they think of seeking compensation after an accident like slipping and falling in a store. However, personal injury lawsuits sometimes apply to workplace injuries, as well.
If you are an independent contractor, you are most likely not covered by workers’ compensation, and so a personal injury lawsuit is the way you would recover compensation after an injury. Additionally, even employees covered by workers’ comp can file third-party personal injury lawsuits if individuals or companies unrelated to their employer harmed them. For example, if you were injured by defective machinery at work, the manufacturer could be liable for your injuries and losses in a third-party personal injury lawsuit.
Key Differences Between a Workers’ Comp Claim and a Personal Injury Claim
Some of the key differences between workers’ comp and personal injury claims are:
- Who can file – Only employees can file workers’ comp claims. Workers’ comp does not cover independent contractors. However, some workers labeled as independent contractors are actually employees for purposes of workers’ comp. Anyone can file a personal injury lawsuit. An exception is that employees covered by workers’ comp cannot sue their employers for workplace injuries.
- No-fault vs. fault – Workers’ comp is a no-fault system, so you do not have to prove who was at fault for your injuries to receive benefits. You can even receive workers’ comp benefits if the accident resulted from your negligence. To receive compensation through a personal injury lawsuit, you must demonstrate that the defendant’s negligence caused your injuries.
- Available compensation – While you can seek payment of medical expenses and wage loss compensation through either workers’ comp or personal injury claims, you can seek non-economic damages like pain and suffering only through personal injury lawsuits. Non-economic damages are compensation for intangible, personal losses that have no specific price. Additionally, a third-party personal injury claim could provide complete coverage of your lost income, while workers’ compensation wage-replacement benefits cover up to two-thirds of lost income.
Can I File Both a Personal Injury and a Workers’ Compensation Claim?
You can file personal injury and workers’ compensation claims simultaneously. For example, let’s say you are working on a construction site when a crane fails and drops a load of materials onto you. In this situation, you could seek workers’ compensation because you suffered an injury at work and also file a third-party personal injury lawsuit against the crane manufacturer if their faulty equipment caused your injury.
However, it’s important to understand how workers’ comp and personal injury cases can interact. If you receive compensation through your personal injury lawsuit, you may have to reimburse the workers’ compensation insurance company for some or all of the benefits it paid you. Our experienced work injury attorneys can explain how these claims may interact in your situation.
The Process of Filing Both Claims
The processes for filing a workers’ compensation claim and filing a personal injury lawsuit are slightly different. For workers’ compensation, you must first report your injury to your employer as soon as possible. Then, your employer will provide you with the information necessary for filing your claim. Once your claim is received, the insurance company will either accept or deny it. If it denies your claim, you can file an application for resolution of a claim with the Department of Workers’ Claims.
Personal injury lawsuits begin by filing a complaint with the court and notifying the defendant of your lawsuit. The defendant has a chance to respond to your complaint, and then negotiations begin or continue while the parties gather additional information about the case. If a settlement can’t be reached through negotiations, your lawyer will take your case to trial to seek the maximum compensation.
What Are the Statute of Limitations and Deadlines for Each Claim?
The deadline for filing a personal injury lawsuit in Kentucky is usually one year from the injury date, except for car accidents, which have a two-year deadline. That makes it vital that you contact a work injury lawyer as soon as possible so they can begin working on your case.
Workers’ compensation claims have a two-year deadline. However, this deadline is either from the injury date or the date of your last temporary total disability payment. If your injury results from an occupational disease, you have three years from the date you realize your condition is related to your work to file your claim, but it can be no more than five years from your last work-related exposure to whatever caused your disease.
How Our Experienced Workplace Injury Attorneys Can Help You
When you work with an experienced Kentucky workplace injury attorney from Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer, you get an attorney who will handle your injury claim from all angles. Whether you have a personal injury lawsuit, workers’ compensation claim, or both, our attorneys are available 24/7 to help you seek the compensation you need and deserve.
The attorneys you see in our TV commercials are the same attorneys who will work on your case, and you will meet with them early on when you hire our firm. Contact our law office now for a free consultation with a member of our legal team.
