Workers Compensation
| Necessity of Payment for "Employee" Designation |
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| To qualify for workers' compensation benefits, an individual must be an "employee." An important consideration in the determination of "employee" status is whether or not the individual receives payment for his labor. Workers' compensation is meant to provide the injured employee with a portion of his lost wages. If there is no payment for the worker's labor, he is not an employee for hire and has no "lost wages" that workers' compensation benefits can help replace. More... |
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| Traveling Employees |
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| Generally, if an employee is required to travel as a part of his employment, he is covered by workers' compensation for the duration of the trip. There is a distinct exception to this rule when the employee markedly departs from the business trip to attend to a personal matter. In those jurisdictions following the majority rule for compensability above, an employee will usually be covered for an injury resulting from, for example, sleeping in a hotel or eating in a restaurant. More... |
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| Nonprofit and Charitable Employers |
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| Nonprofit and charitable employers are not treated the same in every state for purposes of workers' compensation. Some states expressly exclude them from the operation of the workers' compensation statute while others expressly include them or neglect to address them at all. Despite this, the majority of jurisdictions hold that nonprofit and charitable employers are, in fact, subject to the workers' compensation system. Such employers may include churches and synagogues, educational institutions, charitable organizations such as the Salvation Army that are designed to aid the community, and the like. More... |
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| Segregation of Damages in Third-Party Action |
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| In some instances, the recovery resulting from a third-party action will be divided by different items making up the total recovery. For instance, a portion of the recovery could be allocated for the medical expenses paid by the employer, for the employee's pain and suffering, for the loss of consortium, and for punitive damages. When the recovery has been so segregated, the next issue is whether the claim of the employer or its workers' compensation carrier (as the subrogees) can attach to the whole recovery amount or only that portion attributable to the compensation paid. More... |
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| Workers' Compensation |
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| Workers' compensation is an employer-provided benefit that exists to aid an employee or his dependents in the event that the employee is injured or killed on the job. Workers' compensation is governed by each state's laws, but the general consensus is that eligibility for such benefits turns on whether the employee suffered an accidental injury that arose out of and in the course of his employment or an occupational disease. More... |
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