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An analysis of the policies that cover compensation to injured employees and those that cover other accidental injuries may reveal a number of small differences. Still, there are two major differences.
Huge difference number one
The ability to win a personal injury claim depends on presentation of evidence that the indicated party did in fact cause the victim’s injuries. In other words, that individual must be shown to be at-fault. In a workers’ compensation case, no one gets deemed at-fault. Still, your employer might try to make it look like you or some outside influence contributed to development of the claimed injury. If your employer succeeds, your award might be less, even if you are declared deserving of some compensation.
For example, maybe you notice that your fingers keep falling asleep, after you have spent a good bit of time making the same repeated motion with your wrist. That is evidence that you are suffering with carpal tunnel syndrome. If your employer can prove that some activity or occurrence other than what you did on the job contributed to your syndrome, then your claim could be weakened.
Considering the other side of the coin, there is a chance that your award might be made greater. You can enjoy that development, if your Personal Injury Lawyer in Cambridge covers all the bases. He or she ought to study the extent to which you were or were not encouraged to perform those exercises that are known to limit the chances that an employee may develop carpal tunnel syndrome.
Your employer might make such a claim while hiding those facts that would strengthen your case. Consider, for instance, what happened in the case of one woman that had developed carpal tunnel syndrome. She had been sitting in an amniocentesis lab, cutting chromosomes out of photographs. Her case was made weaker by the fact that she was then pregnant.
Huge difference number two
When you move forward with a personal injury claim, you can ask to be compensated for your pain and suffering. When you file a workers’ compensation claim you cannot seek reimbursement for pain and suffering. By the same token, you cannot sue your employer or co-worker for negligence. That stipulation holds true for just about every type of worker. Still, there are few employees that enjoy the advantages attached to qualifying for an exemption.
Exempted workers
If you are the member of the crew on a seagoing vessel, then you can sue an employer or a co-worker for negligence. That holds true regardless of the size of the vessel on which you have been working. It could have been a cruise ship or a cargo ship; on a cargo ship, the men on-board are expected to put forth a team effort. Alternately you might have been working on a small fishing boat.
There is one group of workers that can ask to be rewarded for pain and suffering, even while proceeding on a workers’ compensation case. Those are the men and women that carry out their job responsibilities while employed by one of the interstate railroad carriers.