Employees who are injured on the job by heavy machinery could file a claim or possible lawsuit to receive compensation for their injuries. There are several ways of receiving compensation for accident injuries. The road to compensation starts with knowing about the available legal options.
Accident Victims Must Know the Exact Cause
Accident victims should contact a workers’ compensation attorney to find out more about their legal rights. Before they file a claim in their case, they should know the exact cause of the accident. This will dictate the way that they get their benefits.
The most common way that employees are paid for machinery accidents at work is through workers’ compensation claims. Except in rare circumstances, workers cannot sue their employers for work injuries. They have access to a system that does not ask about fault in an accident. So long as the employee could prove that they were injured on the job and meet the requirements for filing a claim, they could receive benefits. Even if the employer was to blame, they cannot be sued.
The important steps on the road to workers’ compensation are notifying the employer of the injury and filing a claim for benefits. Both of these must be done within a certain period of time. Otherwise, the claimant would risk losing the benefits. A workers’ compensation attorney could advise on the exact process and deadlines and could help if a claim is denied.
Lawsuits Are Also Possible Depending on the Cause
The machinery itself may also be the issue. An attorney could investigate whether the machinery that injured the victim was defective. This may be a better scenario for the injured person because he or she could recover more in a lawsuit against the company that made the machine than in a workers’ compensation claim. Here, victims could file a product liability lawsuit.
A workers’ compensation claim would pay for lost wages and medical bills. A product liability case would also compensate the victim for things like pain and suffering. Injured workers should choose the course of action that is legally allowable and would get them the most money.
If the machinery was owned by a third party, accident victims could file a lawsuit against the owner if there was something wrong with the machine.
