If you’ve been injured while in the course of your work and you’ve filed a workers compensation claim, you should understand that you may be eligible to receive personal injury damages to compensate for a variety of costs and losses also. With the myriad of causes and circumstances that tend to lead to workplace injury, personal injury liability should always be considered when looking at your options for recovery. This post will lay out a few important circumstances where filing a personal injury claim is most certainly an option in the wake of an on-the-job injury:
Employer at Fault:
Let’s face it, things happen. It’s not always the case that just because an injury occured on the job the boss is responsible. But by the same token, employers can sometimes be guilty of neglect when employees are harmed. If an factory owner, for instance, cuts corners and maintains less than standard safety protocols, they can be found at fault for injuries that result. If they fail to replace old, failing equipment, or if they refuse to repair forklifts that are obviously old and falling apart. Should this kind of neglect ultimately result in employee harm, they could be held responisible for personal injury damages.
Subcontractor at Fault:
If your work is part of a large project that engages subcontractors, one of whom manages a work site, that could lead to personal injury liability as well. Let’s say, you are part of a concert crew who’se job it is to manage pyrotechnics for an upcoming event. You handle stage management for the venue, but the vendor or subcontractor is handling the on-stage fireworks display. Should something go wrong because of an oversight in safety protocols, for instance, and you’re injured, you may be able to sue the vendor for personal injury damages.
Product Liability:
There are a great many times that, in the course of one’s work, you utilize a product or substance sold commercially that has the potential for harm when in use. Let’s say, for instance, you are a landscaper and you utilize a toxic weed killer to manage weeds in a client’s lawn project. If the substance is found to have been sold without proper warning of the dangers inherent in its use, that could be grounds for a product liability claim against not only the manufacturer, but potentially the distributor, the marketing partners and event the retailer, in some instances.
The complications that lead to eligibility for personal injury damages in addition to workers compensation awards when injured on the job are many. That’s why it’s always important to consult with an experienced workers compensation attorney like those at Bizzieri Law Offices in Chicago when injured on the job. They can clear up any confusion about the available options for compensation and help file a claim that not only covers your medical costs, but potentially time away from work and other damages in your claim. Call our offices at 773.881.9000 if you have questions about a workplace injury claim. There is no cost for the initial consultation and we never collect a fee unless we recover damages for you.