Our attorneys have been assisting the Riverside community for over 40 years.
When you sustain a work injury in California, there is a good chance you will be able to recover compensation for your losses, particularly medical bills and a portion of your lost wages. There is good news for those who were at fault for their own injury or think they may have shared fault for a workplace injury – you should still be able to recover compensation.
Did you know that just about every employer in California must carry workers’ competition insurance for their employees? Workers’ compensation insurance offers protection to both the employer and the employee and is a great system for ensuring that injured workers receive the compensation they need. Any person who sustains a work-related injury or illness in California will typically be able to receive compensation for their medical bills as well as a major portion of their lost wages if they are unable to work.
Workers’ compensation insurance in California is considered a no-fault insurance system, and this is important. A no-fault insurance system allows individual workers to receive the compensation they are entitled to regardless of whether or not they caused their own injury. If the employer or a coworker caused the injury, the worker should be able to receive compensation. If the worker caused their own injury by a mistake that they made, they will still be able to receive compensation so long as the injury occurred when they were performing job-related duties.
There are a few exceptions to when a worker may not be able to recover compensation for causing their own injury. This includes, but is not limited to, incidents where the worker was horse playing at work, and the horse playing led to their injury or when the worker was intoxicated by alcohol or drugs on the job.
We strongly encourage any person who is struggling to receive workers’ compensation after a workplace injury to reach out to a skilled attorney as soon as possible. It can be challenging to adequately prove that an injury occurred at work, depending on the situation at hand. This is particularly true if there was nobody around to witness the incident or if the injury or illness occurred over time, which is not uncommon with repetitive stress injuries.
When you work with a skilled Riverside workers’ compensation attorney, you will have an someone willing to examine every aspect of your work injury claim. There are many benefits of having legal assistance when approaching these claims. First, your attorney will be your advocate when communicating with the insurance carrier or your employer. They will gather the evidence needed to prove what happened and represent you at any workers’ compensation hearing.
Additionally, many individuals may not realize when they have a third-party personal injury claim against another individual or entity related to their workplace injury. If an attorney finds that there is a third party who could hold liability, this opens up the possibility of a civil personal injury lawsuit and additional types of compensation. This compensation would allow for more coverage of lost wages as well as pain and suffering damages, which are unavailable through the workers’ compensation system.