ACCIDENTS: WORK INJURIES
An injury at work is
handled very differently than a personal injury case, such as a car accident.
Personal
injury cases (also called negligence or tort cases) are handled
in the court system, usually in the Connecticut Superior Court
or the Federal District Court.
Work accidents are handled by the Connecticut Workers'
Compensation Commission.
In a
personal injury case, fault must be proven. In a workers'
compensation case, fault does not matter (except if the injury
was caused intentionally, by intoxication, or by horseplay).
If you
slip on a puddle of olive oil while shopping at a store and get
hurt, you must prove that the store employees acted carelessly
by not cleaning up the oil, that they knew the oil was there or
had enough time to know it was there, and that you were being
careful but still slipped.
If you are a
store employee and slip on the same patch of oil and get hurt,
it does not matter whether you or anyone else was careless. To have a workers'
compensation case, you only need to show that you got hurt while
you were at work doing something related to your work.
In a
personal injury case, you can get compensated for everything
reasonably related to the accident. This includes payment of
medical bills and lost wages, as well as compensation for your
pain and suffering, permanent disability, and any scars.
In a
workers' compensation case, what you receive is limited by law. You cannot collect for
pain and suffering. You can only receive part of your
lost wages (about 75% of your after-tax income), payment for
permanent disability based at set amounts, and for some
scars.
If you do not settle a personal case, there
will be a trial and the amount you receive depends on what
a jury decides your entire case is worth.
In a
workers' compensation case, you cannot have a trial for the
entire value of the case. You can only have trials (called
formal hearings) to get paid specific benefits.
Workers' compensation cases can stay open forever. Neither
you nor the insurance company is required to settle your
workers' compensation case.
In workers'
compensation, the amount you receive for permanent disability
depends on which part of your body is hurt and what percentage
of disability the doctors say you have.
The Connecticut
workers' compensation law has a list of
the parts of the body that most commonly are hurt. Each of
these parts is given a value in number of weeks. For example, the back is
"worth" 374 weeks.
If you suffer 10% permanent disability of the back, you
will receive 37.4 weeks of payments.
(For more information about the differences between
workers compensation' and personal injury cases, click here.)
At
Serrano & Serrano, LLC, we know what it is like for you to
have a work injury because we have 35 years combined experience
helping injured workers get the benefits they
deserve.
We will use this experience and our skill and
determination to get you the compensation you deserve.
Please call to schedule an appointment to speak
with us about your workers' compensation case.
You may also click here to confidentially
send us information for us to review your workers' compensation
case.
We look at your case
for free. We only charge a fee if we win or settle your
workers' compensation case.
