Should I File a Worker’s Compensation Or Personal Injury Claim?

In order to determine which option is best for you, it’s important to understand how they’re different. Worker’s compensation and personal injury claims differ in some significant ways:

Proving Legal Fault

When you file for worker’s compensation, you don’t have to determine who is at fault for the accident. All you have to do is demonstrate that you got hurt while working, and that’s it. If you have a qualifying injury, you don’t have to prove that your employer is at fault. You also don’t have to prove that you’re not at fault.
However, proving legal liability is required in all traditional personal injury cases. To win any compensation, you have to prove that the responsible person or party caused the accident. The legal standard is at least negligence, and it may also be recklessness or intentional misconduct. In terms of proving the case, winning a personal injury claim has additional burdens and steps that are not present in a worker’s compensation case.

Pain and Suffering

However, before you conclude that it’s just easier and faster to file a worker’s compensation claim, remember that there are some reasons that a personal injury claim may be more beneficial. In a third-party injury claim, you can demand compensation for pain and suffering.
The value of the pain and suffering portion of any claim may be much higher than the amount in economic damages. Because pain and suffering damages are allowed in a third-party claim, the compensation that you can win in a personal injury claim may be much greater than a worker’s compensation claim.

Yes, you can file both a worker’s compensation claim and a personal injury claim. The two types of cases are not mutually exclusive. If a third party is legally responsible for the accident, and the accident occurs while working on behalf of your employer, both types of actions are available to you.

Examples of Having Both a Worker’s Compensation Claim and Personal Injury Claim

There are a variety of circumstances in which you may qualify for both a worker’s compensation claim and a personal injury claim. Here are some examples:

• You’re driving for work and a car accident occurs. You sustain injuries. The car accident is the fault of the other driver. The other driver is also driving for work purposes. In this case, you may have a worker’s compensation claim through your employer. You may also have a valid claim against the other driver and their employer.
• The company that you work for provides personal protective equipment (PPE). They give you a pair of work gloves. Unfortunately, the gloves are made of poor materials. A glove rips while you are working, and you severely injure your hand. You may have a valid worker’s compensation claim, but you may also have a valid personal injury claim against the glove’s manufacturer for product liability.
• One of your job duties is to move boxes through the building and into storage. There are broken stairs on the way to the basement storage unit. It’s the building owner’s job to maintain the stairs. However, they’ve fallen into disrepair. As you carry boxes on the stairs, you slip and fall. While worker’s compensation may be appropriate for your employer, a third-party claim may be most appropriate because of the liability of the building owner.