Typically, workers’ compensation laws are in place to solely protect employees who sustain work-related injuries. It means that you can’t sue your employer for damages stemming from the job. The reason is, when the employer provides workers’ comp benefits, the law shields them from defending against injury claims filed by the same workers. Therefore, workers' comp is a trade-off between a worker and employer. You relinquish your rights to file an injury claim in exchange for compensation.

However, there are exceptions to the workers’ compensation no-fault system. At The Workers Compensation Lawyer Law Firm, we understand these exceptions. We are ready to evaluate your case and determine whether you can sue the employer instead of filing a workers’ compensation claim in Los Angeles.

The Idea Behind Workers’ Compensation

Generally, California requires all businesses with employees to purchase workers’ comp insurance policy from a private policy carrier or the State Compensation Insurance Fund. The policy aims to provide insured employees with compensation for medical expenses and lost wages due to workplace injuries.

A mishap like a slip and a fall can happen in a split second while performing your duties at work, causing severe injuries. Workers’ compensation benefits are available to ensure that during the time you are not at work, you obtain indemnity benefits for the harm sustained. The benefits you can receive from the process include lost income, medical or doctor bills, and vocational rehabilitation.

Also, the policy protects your dependants by providing compensation if workplace injuries cause your death. Further, if the injuries prevent you from working, the workers’ comp policy will pay a certain fraction of your salary for the period of recovery until you can resume work.

The policy offers indemnity for all expenses associated with the injuries during treatment and the recovery period. Again, you will obtain compensation for temporary disability, permanent disability, or even permanent partial disability. Furthermore, if you need retraining or vocational rehabilitation, the insurance scheme will cover the cost.

Note that there is a controversial side to this insurance policy. Usually, if you accept benefits from the insurance scheme, you can’t come back to sue your employer. You surrender these rights for the insurance benefits provided by the employer. The idea behind the workers’ comp law is to protect employees when they are injured and protect the employer from multiple lawsuits, which could result in significant damages for the company or organization.

Workers’ comp is an exclusive remedy for workplace injuries. Even if you plan on suing the employer, the process is complete, and the circumstances might not allow it. However, there are a few exceptions when you can sue the company or a third party.

When your employer learns of your plans to file a lawsuit, they might discourage or convince you not to proceed with the move. Therefore, you should involve a workers’ comp lawyer in your case to understand your options and what you can or cannot do. If you take the civil suit route, the rewards are higher, but the burden of proof shifts to the plaintiff. It is no longer a no-fault system meaning you must prove the boss or a third party is liable for the injuries. Discussed below are these narrow exceptions when you can file a suit against your employer or third party.

When an Employer’s Deliberate Behavior Causes Harm

If you sustain work-related injuries and trust your employer deliberately caused them, you can file an employer tort in court. A tort injury doesn’t necessarily need to be physical or visible. Even non-physical injuries like emotional distress or pain and anguish are compensable. The law allows you to sue the employer where you believe their intentional tortious acts caused harm, regardless of whether they hold a workers' comp policy.

The common intentional torts you can sue the employer for are:

  • Battery where the employer or something hits you at work, causing harm
  • Assault whereby the employer threatens or coerces you through their actions
  • The employer intentionally causes you emotional distress through terrible behavior
  • The employer unlawfully restrains you or without any valid reasons

There are other grounds for filing an employer’s tort, although they are less common. They are:

  • Fraud whereby an employer lies to you with the plans to cause you harm
  • Defamation whereby the employer talks lies about you to inflict harm
  • The incursion of privacy whereby an employer leaks confidential info or photos to a large audience
  • When the employer converts your property into theirs
  • The employer accesses or utilizes your property without consent

It’s not a walk in the park to find evidence to prove intentional or specific harm by the employer. You can only file a suit with intentional torts if direct evidence links your employer with the intentional damages. Even if they acted negligently, that wouldn’t be adequate to prove that they worked to harm or hurt you deliberately.

Again, to sue your employer in a civil court, you cannot rely on the deliberate conduct by colleagues or supervisors to prove the employer’s willful intent to cause harm. If the employer permitted or convinced your co-workers to inflict injury on you through thoughtful and wanton physical aggression, that’s when you can file an employer tort. Sometimes, even when an employer acts in a manner that could result in substantial harm or intentionally conceals dangerous info to make injuries inevitable, you can file an employer tort.

However, it’s challenging to analyze an event and determine that it is eligible for an intentional tort. You will need a workers' comp lawyer to analyze the situation and determine if it qualifies for a civil suit against the employer.

When Work-Related Harm Stems from a Faulty Product

The duo capacity doctrine recognizes that your employer has a second lawful relationship with you as the worker. If you suffer harm because of faulty equipment manufactured by the employer at the workplace, you can sue them in a civil court. However, if the injury stems from something else outside work, you can sue them as a third party, but this is outside the workers' comp realm.

Nevertheless, you must know that many parties are involved before the product reaches your workplace, including retailers and distributors. Therefore, you can include all the individuals involved in the supply chain as defendants in your product liability claim when faulty products inflict harm.

When the equipment manufacturer is the same employer you work for, you can claim workers’ comp benefits and still file a product liability claim.

Once the parties responsible for your damages repay you, you must pay part of the damages recovered to your employer or the employer’s policy carrier for the benefits issued before filing the private lawsuit. If you don’t return the money, you will have received double payment for the same damages.

Sometimes, you can even include the employer or insurance company in the product liability suit. If you obtain maximum compensation from the manufacturer, the employer or their insurer will receive the money they paid for damages provided under the workers’ comp.

You will need a reputable lawyer to file the product liability suit against the manufacturers or other parties involved. The legal counsel can identify all those responsible and ensure the compensation obtained is enough to cover the losses incurred due to the harm stemming from work or job-related activities.

When the Injury or Illness Stems From Toxic Exposure

You may develop work-related injuries on the job due to exposure to toxic chemicals. The injuries or disease develop after prolonged exposure to toxins at work due to a lack of the required protective gear or safety tools. Even with damages caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, the employer is responsible for compensation through the workers’ comp insurance scheme. However, after a thorough review of the claim by your lawyer, they might recommend you file a toxic tort lawsuit.

A toxic tort has many torts within it, but it is common among them all that you, as the plaintiff, claim injuries or illness caused by exposure to toxic chemicals. The standard chemicals that have been linked to on-the-job injuries include:

  • Asbestos
  • Acids
  • Benzene
  • Paints
  • Pesticides

Without safety equipment and protective gear, working in factories like these, relying on these chemicals in daily operations increases the possibility of developing injuries or severe medical conditions. You might experience the injury symptoms immediately after the exposure if they are chemical bans or poisoning. Other injuries require prolonged exposure before symptoms appear, including cancers and lung illnesses.

A claim involving a condition stemming from extended exposure to chemicals might be challenging to prove because it’s hard to link it with the specific toxic substance. The defendant’s lawyer can argue that the illness developed due to something else other than toxic exposure. A toxic tort comes as an injury claim to prove the individual whose negligence caused the injuries. Again, you will need a lawyer with knowledge of injury claims to obtain compensation from the civil suit.

If you are in Sacramento and have sustained harm or illness because of exposure to chemicals or toxic substances, you can file a toxic tort if you are convinced someone was at fault. In most cases, you can sue the manufacturer of the protective gears or safety equipment for manufacturing tools that couldn’t control the exposure.

However, before taking any legal action against your employer, you must consult with your lawyer to advise you accordingly after a detailed review of the injuries or illness. The lawyer will then explain your rights and the right action to ensure you obtain damages for the harm through a personal injury suit.

The decision on whether to obtain compensation through workers’ compensation or an injury claim depends on the parties responsible for the injuries. It could be the chemical manufacturer or the person who owns the job site where the exposure occurred.

When the Employer Denies You Workers' Comp Benefits or Terminates Your Employment

Sometimes employers are unwilling to pay workers’ comp benefits for the losses employees have suffered from workplace injuries. If the injuries sustained prevent you from going to work for a long time, you might be wrongfully terminated, and this could be the right time to file a private lawsuit.

However, you can’t appeal your damages award until the claim is settled and all parties have taken the necessary measures to settle the case. Afterwards, you can appeal the decision in a workers' comp board or a nominated court. Only after you have met all law requirements can you seek redress in a civil court.

Other times, the employer might deny or cancel your compensation benefits for no reason. In these scenarios, you should go after the employer and file a civil suit for indemnification.

Also, you can go after the employer for compensation when you believe the benefits obtained from the insurance scheme are insufficient to cover your losses because your claim was handled in bad faith. You will know your case was handled in bad faith if there are unnecessary delays or negligence in investigations, processing, settlement, and payment of your injuries. Although the law doesn’t allow you to file a civil suit when an employer acts in bad faith, the court will impose penalties and hefty fines on the liable employer.

However, you must understand that suing your employer won’t be easy. These are giant corporations or businesses with money to invest in profound legal firms that you must face in court. Therefore, you must ensure you retain an experienced legal team that will present strong assertions to demonstrate that your termination from the job was unjust.

When the Employer Carries Insufficient Workers' Comp Benefits

Under the workers' comp statutes, every employer must purchase a workers' compensation insurance policy. They do this because when they fail to provide employees with workplace injuries or illness with compensation, they are bound to more damage verdicts which are more expensive than indemnifying workers through the workers' comp insurance scheme.

An employer with insufficient or doesn’t carry this insurance policy at all violates their legal duty, and the law allows you to sue these individuals or entities. Again, the law will enable you to file a private lawsuit against your employer if they hold insufficient a workers’ comp policy because the exclusive remedy rule no longer restricts you.

Although the law doesn’t prevent you from taking the employer to court, there is more involved in a private suit than you think. There is no doubt by filing a civil lawsuit against the uninsured employer, you will receive more damages than from a workers’ comp claim. However, you must remember that the workers' comp is a no-fault scheme, meaning you don’t need to prove they were at fault. This is different from when you sue the employer in a civil court because you assume the responsibility of establishing negligence.

Also, you must wait until the case’s conclusion to obtain compensation. It means that you won’t receive any medical expenses and lost wages compensation until the case closes. You will turn to your health insurance coverage to foot the hospital bill or pay out of pocket, becoming very challenging considering you cannot return to work. However, if you benefit from workers' comp, medical bills and wages will be the least of your worries because the law provides for these.

Even when your employer is uninsured but eligible for the workers' comp benefits, financing options are available to cover the bills. California understands that you can’t wait until the civil court gives a verdict to receive medical treatment or a portion of your salary for the time you are away from work due to your injuries. So, a special fund has been set aside for individuals like you who have sustained illnesses or harm due to work-related activities, and the employer lacks the necessary insurance coverage.

Third-Party Action Injury Claims

California law gives you the right to sue a third party if you reasonably believe they are the cause of your injuries or harm. Several workplace injuries might be caused by third parties, which is why you shouldn’t rush your decision to sue the employer without first establishing the responsible individuals. These third-party claims are filed in state or federal courts and have strict statutes of limitations that you must abide by. If the time provided in this law lapses without filing the private claim, you lose the legal right to sue the liable party.

For example, you work for a sales company as a driver, and in the line of duty, you are involved in an accident with another vehicle whose driver was running a red right. In that case, although the injuries are work-related, the person at fault is the vehicle driver, who is the third party and should be sued for your damages. The driver's insurer liable for the accident will reach out to offer a settlement. However enticing this first settlement is, you should always turn it down because you can always obtain a better deal by hiring an injury lawyer to handle your case and protect your legal rights.

As you pursue compensation from the third party, your workers' comp insurance will cover medical bills and other damages provided for in the law. However, after the third party awards you for the injuries, you must reimburse the employer or their insurance company the workers’ comp benefits you obtained.

If you plan to file a lawsuit against a third party for your workplace injuries, you have twenty-four months from the date of the harm to file a claim. However, when the third party is a government entity, you have a window of six months to file your claim.

Other Exceptions to Workers' Comp Benefits

California statutes allow you, as an injured employee, to sue your employer when they violate your civil rights through sexual harassment or racial discrimination.

Also, when your employer tries to conceal workplace injuries or lie about them fraudulently, you have a right to sue them for compensation if these injuries worsen without obtaining the necessary medical treatment. You can sue your employer if they know of the hazardous effects of the chemicals used at the job site and the harm they can cause. Despite the knowledge, they opt to conceal the existence of these injuries or conditions, allowing the damage to worsen, even after you have reported the symptoms. In a case like this, you can file a suit in the state court because the matter is outside the realm of the workers' compensation laws.

When building a case, you must prove a link between your injuries and work and inform the employer of the illness. Still, they intentionally concealed the harm, aggravating it. Here, the law allows you to claim both workers' comp and consequently file a lawsuit to obtain additional benefits.

Is It Right to Sue, Your Employer for Workplace Injuries or Illness?

Recall, by filing a case against your employer in a civil court, you increase the chances of additional benefits than what is under workers' comp. Under this insurance scheme, you are only eligible for weekly reimbursements, medical expenses, and vocational training.

On the other hand, when you file a civil suit, the employer takes up additional damages like punitive damages if they deliberately caused your injuries. Besides, you are eligible for pain and suffering, permanent disability, and other damages available under an injury claim. However, with workers’ comp, you cannot obtain these additional damages.

It’s worth noting that even though a civil suit seems more attractive because of the many benefits, you can’t be sure what you will obtain at the end of the case. Further, the lawsuit might extend for a long time, and you end up receiving an unfavorable outcome, leaving you with empty pockets.

So, you will need to speak to an experienced injury lawyer to evaluate the case and advise you whether an injury claim is proper under the circumstances.

Find an Experienced Workers' Compensation Lawyer Near Me

When you or a close family member sustains injuries on the job and are confident you can file an injury claim against the employer, you should speak to an experienced lawyer like The Workers Compensation Lawyer Law Firm immediately. We will weigh the benefits of workers' comp against those of a civil suit and ensure you understand your rights. For more questions or consultation regarding the same, call us at 424-501-9228 for a free consultation in Los Angeles.