Third Parties Responsible for Workplace Injury
Third Parties Responsible for Workplace Injury
Some entity or person other than a worker’s employer is sometimes the cause of a worker’s “on-job” injury. The existence of such a third-party wrong-doer, or “tort-feasor” can dramatically increase the value and recovery of a worker for his or her work-place injuries. Instead of being limited to disability awards representing a fraction of the value of actual lost wages, an injured worker may recover full value for his or her wage loss. Such an injured worker may also recover “pain and suffering” or general damages, or even punitive damages, when neither type of recovery is available in a worker’s compensation case. Such recoveries that “make whole” an injured person are a hallmark of the law of negligence in California, or “tort law.” An attorney experienced in both third-party claims and worker’s compensation should be consulted to maximize an injured person’s recovery.