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The US workforce includes more than 105 million people. Every year, over 6 million of these workers get injured and 6,023 more lose their lives on the job, according to the National Safety Council. The estimated cost is in the billions of dollars.
Employers are required to provide a reasonably safe workplace. This includes safe equipment, proper training, posting of warnings, and compliance with safety regulations.
In most workplace injury cases, if an employee is injured while in the course of his or her employment, the injured employee generally may not sue the employer in court but is instead required to seek compensation under the state's workers' compensation program. Under workers’ compensation laws, you are generally entitled to benefits to compensate you for a portion of your lost income and medical costs. Workers' Compensation laws are designed to ensure that employees who are injured or disabled on the job are provided with fixed monetary awards, eliminating the need for litigation. These laws also provide benefits for dependents of those workers who are killed because of work-related accidents or illnesses.
In addition to the remedies available under workers’ compensation laws, there are certain types of cases where a civil lawsuit may be filed on your behalf. In cases where the employer knew or should have known that the workplace was unsafe and likely to cause injury, an injured employee may be able to sue the employer directly for allowing such unsafe conditions to occur in the workplace. Additionally, if an employee is injured by a piece of defective machinery or equipment in the workplace, he or she may be able to sue all of the parties involved in the design, engineering, manufacture, distribution, sale, and installation of the defective machinery.
Because workplace injury cases are so complex, you need an experienced and aggressive litigation team if you have been injured as a result of workplace injury or illness. The lawfirm of Barron, Peck, Bennie & Schlemmer is the right choice.