Workers' Comp VS Non-Subscribers

Workers' Compensation v. Non-Subscribers: Lawyer Michael Grossman Discusses

If you have been hurt on the job, you need the help of an experienced legal professional to help you seek the compensation you deserve.

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Work injury cases are some of the most complex cases in the legal world. The exact way in which your case must be handled depends on a multitude of different factors, but possibly the largest is whether or not your employer subscribes to workers’ compensation insurance. If your employer does subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance (these are called subscriber cases), then he or she may be immune to the lawsuit you would be eligible to file in a non-subscriber case. However, many employers pretend to have workers’ compensation insurance when they do not, and in other cases, you may be able to bring lawsuits against liable third parties even if you cannot sue your employer. In short, if you are to receive all the compensation you deserve, you need the help of an experienced attorney. Dallas work injury attorney Michael Grossman from Grossman Law Offices is here to help you protect your rights and receive a fair settlement.

What is Workers’ Compensation and How Does it Prevent me From Filing a Lawsuit?

Technically, workers’ compensation is a type of insurance. However, it is nothing like a standard insurance policy. Workers’ compensation insurance is part of a large bureaucratic tort reform designed to protect employers from lawsuits filed by their employees. This tort reform is largely the result of business lobbying. Workers’ compensation benefits come out of a fund that is state-managed, but the actual insurance policies are provided by private insurance carriers. In Texas, employers may elect not to subscribe to workers’ compensation insurance.

Workers’ compensation insurance does provide some small benefit to injured employees. If your employer subscribes to workers’ compensation insurance and you are injured on the job, then you will receive compensation. It does not matter how the accident occurred or who was at fault. However, the compensation you will receive is extremely limited, and does not typically cover the true cost of an on the job injury. In cases where you cannot file a lawsuit against your employer but you still need compensation for your injuries, our attorneys can help you identify liable third parties from which you can seek a fair settlement. For example, if you are hurt at a construction site and your employer has workers’ compensation insurance, you will not be able to file a lawsuit against him or her. However, many construction site injuries are the result of multiple parties. If, for example, you are hurt in a scaffolding collapse, the company that built the scaffolding is probably liable. If you are injured due to defective equipment, you can likely file a product liability claim against the product’s manufacturer. In other words, even if you cannot file a lawsuit against your employer, you may have options for seeking compensation. Let our Dallas workers compensation attorneys help you identify all possible defendants in your case.

Keep in mind that your employer may pretend to have workers’ compensation when he or she does not. Employers may even pay you the benefits you would receive from workers’ compensation insurance in order to further this illusion. Our attorneys can investigate your employer and determine whether or not he or she has workers’ compensation insurance. If not, we can help you file a strong non-subscriber lawsuit.

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What Sort of Benefits can I Receive From Workers’ Compensation Insurance?

If you are hurt on the job and your employer has workers’ compensation insurance, you will typically receive up to 70% of your lost income. However, this compensation is capped at $600 per week. For example, let us say that you are a carpenter who makes $70,000 per year. If you are injured on the job and your employer has workers’ compensation insurance, you will receive $600 per week to cover your lost wages while you are recovering from your injury. However, if you suffer long-term disability and can never return to work, you will only receive $600 per week for the rest of your life, despite previously making approximately $1400 every week. You may also receive an additional lump sum payment at the end of your recovery, but these payments are typically minuscule.

Furthermore, workers’ compensation claims do not take into account future potential income. For example, if you are working at a grocery store while attending law school and you are seriously injured, unable to work or continue school, you will continue to receive 70% of your salary for the rest of your life. However, the compensation will be based on your grocery store salary (probably minimum wage) rather than the much higher salary you were about to make once you graduated from law school.

This is why it is imperative that you let an experienced attorney investigate your case. If your employer is pretending to have workers’ compensation, you want to know so that you can seek a more reasonable settlement. On the other hand, if there are third parties that are partially liable for your injuries, you want to be able to pursue claims against them. Our legal professionals can help you build a comprehensive case to ensure that you receive the compensation you are owed.

How do Non-Subscriber Lawsuits Work?

If your employer does not have workers’ compensation insurance, then you may file a standard personal injury lawsuit against your employer and seek compensation for numerous damages, including:

• Lost income from time spent in the hospital
• Lost earning capacity due to long-term disability
• Medical expenses
• Property damage
• Physical pain, suffering, and discomfort
• Mental or emotional distress caused by the injury

If your employer does not have workers’ compensation insurance, then he or she only has one legal defense against a lawsuit: proving that you were solely responsible for your injuries. Employers will typically build a case against an injured employee with the help of their experienced defense attorneys. For example, if you suffer a lifting injury while on the job, your employer might claim that, since you were working alone, your injury must be your own fault. However, our attorneys are able to link your actions and your injury back to your employer by way of your employer failing to provide proper training, necessary safety equipment, a person to help you lift the object, or any other form of negligence that may apply. Linking your injury to your employer in this fashion often involves obscure forms of legal liability, but our experienced non-subscriber attorneys are intimately familiar with work injury law, and we know how to prove to a jury that your injuries were caused by your employer’s negligence. We are dedicated to helping you seek the compensation you need, whether your employer has workers’ compensation insurance or not.

Work Injury Lawsuits and the Employer-Employee Relationship

Many employers mistakenly believe that hiring contractors lets them escape legal liability in work injury cases. This belief stems from the fact that Texas work injury law specifically states that only general employees are eligible to file work injury lawsuits, not contractors. However, Texas law does not provide clear guidelines for determining employee status from a civil liability standpoint. This means that an attorney must turn to previous rulings to determine whether a worker is an employee or a contractor. This is called case law, and case law in Texas is very clear on this point: in terms of civil liability, an employer-employee relationship is determined by your actual working relationship with your employer, not by a contract.

Numerous conditions can serve to establish an employer-employee relationship. The most straightforward is a contract stating that you are an employee. Another straightforward example is if a worker is performing services particular to an employer’s business. For instance, if a person is at Burger King, wearing a Burger King shirt, serving customers Burger King food, that person is a Burger King employee, regardless of the presence or absence of any sort of contract.

However, most cases involving contractors are not so straightforward. In these situations, our attorneys turn to any number of these conditions to determine your actual relationship with your employer:

• A person works for many different clients: if an electrician works for many different clients on different projects, that electrician is a contractor. If the electrician works for a phone company and only that company, the electrician is an employee.
• The worker must provide his or her own tools: if a worker is responsible for providing his or her own tools and equipment, that worker is a contractor. If the worker’s employer provides the tools and equipment, the worker is an employee.
• The worker’s particular project is examined at various steps of completion: if a worker’s employer examines the worker’s project at various stages of completion, the worker is an employee. If the employer only looks at the finished product, the worker is a contractor.
• The worker determines how much time is spent on each project: if the worker can devote as much or as little time as he or she wants to a particular project, the worker is an contractor. If the amount of time devoted to a project is determined by the employer, the worker is an employee.
• The worker is paid on completion of a particular project: if the worker is only paid when a project is completed, the worker is a contractor. If the worker is paid by the hour or by a yearly salary, the worker is an employee.

In cases where a worker is borrowed from another agency, the rules for determining the working relationship are similar, but there are some important differences. The relevant conditions include:

• The borrowed worker’s employer has the right to hire or fire: if the borrowing employer can hire or fire the borrowed worker at any time, the worker is an employee.
• The borrowing employer had the right to select a particular worker: if the borrowing employer could select a particular worker, then the worker is an employee. If the agency lending the worker could send any worker they wanted, the worker is a contractor.
• The borrowed worker is responsible for providing his or her own tools: if the worker must provide his or her own tools or equipment, the worker is a contractor. If the employer provides the tools, the worker is an employee.
• The agency lending the worker can substitute another worker at any time: if the lending agency can substitute the borrowed worker for another worker at will, then the worker is a contractor. If the lending agency does not have this right, then the worker is an employee.
• The borrowing employer is borrowing the worker for an unspecified length of time: if the worker is borrowed for an indefinite time, then the worker is an employee. If the worker is borrowed for a specific project with a set date of completion, the worker is a contractor.
• The borrowed worker is borrowed because of a particular skill set: if, for example, a boat manufacturing company borrows a composite materials expert from a surfboard manufacturer, then the worker is a contractor. If, however, an employer borrows a worker to fill a position that virtually anyone could fill, then the worker is an employee.
• The borrowing employer assumes responsibility for paying the worker’s income tax and social security: if the borrowing employer must pay the worker’s social security and income tax benefits, then the worker is an employee. If the borrowing employer does not have this responsibility, then the worker is a contractor.

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Obviously, this is a lot to take in. However, the point of all of this is that our lawyers can help you seek fair compensation if you are hurt on the job. If your employer has workers’ compensation insurance (or even if he or she does not), we can help you seek additional compensation from liable third parties, even when those third parties are only liable based on obscure legal theories. If your employer does not have workers’ compensation insurance, we can help you build a strong non-subscriber lawsuit and combat the techniques used by non-subscribers and their defense lawyers to avoid liability. We can also thoroughly investigate your employer to determine whether or not he or she has workers’ compensation insurance. Before you speak with an insurance company, accept a payment from your employer, or attempt to file a lawsuit on your own, contact our lawyers for a free consultation.

Our firm has frequently been able to secure compensation for injured workers that other firms turned down. We recently handled a case involving a worker who was injured on the job, but he had initially signed on as a contractor. Eight different lawyers told him that he did not have a case because the company responsible used contract workers. However, our firm was able to successfully establish an employer-employee relationship, and we ultimately secured a seven-figure settlement for this injured worker.

Let our attorneys fight to protect your rights. For twenty years, the legal professionals at Grossman Law Offices have been helping injured workers receive the compensation they deserve. We have successfully investigated and resolved hundreds of high-profile work injury cases, and we have faced every major insurance carrier and work injury defense firm in the country. These organizations know how successful our attorneys have been, and they often offer our clients sizable settlements once they learn we are on the case, simply because they are scared of facing our lawyers in court. This means that we may be able to secure fair compensation for you without taking your case to court, which can help you get back on your feet faster. However, we are willing and able to aggressively defend your rights in court if necessary. We will do everything we can to make sure that you are fairly compensated for your injuries. So if you or someone you love has been hurt on the job, contact Dallas work injury lawyer Michael Grossman from Grossman Law Offices. Let us help you receive the compensation you need and bring those responsible for your injuries to justice.

What is the workers' compensation?
What does workers' compensation non-subscriber mean?
Can I sue my employer for my injury?

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