Workers’ compensation is a type of financial compensation provided to those who are injured on the job. These individuals may lose wages when they’re out of work and they may have high medical bills because of the injury. The compensation helps them to cover these costs.
Injured workers often wonder, however, whether they qualify for workers’ comp if some mistake they made led to their injuries. With car accidents or other types of injuries, “fault” is very important. The at-fault party is the one who generally has to provide compensation for the losses of the other. For this reason, some workers think that they can’t claim workers’ comp benefits if they were the reason that they got hurt on the job.
You typically still can get workers’ comp
While there are some exceptions, such as if someone was using drugs or alcohol and being extremely negligent on the job site, you typically can still claim workers’ comp even if you caused the injury. This is because workers’ comp is a no-fault system.
After all, workers may have to take risks as they attempt to do their jobs. Simply making a mistake on the job or taking that risk level a little too far doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve compensation if they get injured. A worker who makes a regrettable error in the course of their occupation may still need to get these benefits, and they’re still able to do so under current laws.
If you find yourself in this position, just take the time to look into all of the necessary steps to begin the process.