In many injury cases, the person who caused the injury is the person who is legally at fault and they are therefore liable for the costs stemming from that injury. For example, a driver who causes a car accident and injures someone in the other vehicle may be responsible for paying their medical bills and covering their lost wages.
Workers often take this same mindset to workers’ compensation cases. If they get injured due to something that was their own fault, they assume that they can’t seek compensation because they caused the injury. Meanwhile, if they get injured in a way that they believe wasn’t their own fault, then they blame the business and believe they deserve compensation on those grounds.
But the truth is that fault in workers’ comp cases does not matter. Here’s what you should know:
Fault does not matter
You do not have to prove that the business was at fault or show that you were not. Only in extreme situations will fault matter, such as if someone caused an injury by taking illegal drugs while they were at work.
The entire workers’ comp system was set up to be no-fault so that workers wouldn’t need to sue their employers to try to get compensation. This meant the process was often faster and it protected businesses from having to defend against lawsuits.
But, in order to ensure that workers still got financial assistance when they needed it, businesses accepted the fact that they would have to cover the costs for workers who got hurt on the job. Most carry insurance to do so.
No matter who caused your injury, if it happened while you were at work, you may deserve conversation. You may need to know what legal steps to take.