I fell off a scaffold at my construction site during work and suffered injuries. Is my company liable to pay medical expenses?

An employee injured on the job may seek workers’ compensation benefits. Workers’ compensation is a statutory remedy offered to employees that experience work-related injuries, or industrial injuries.  In general, an employer is required to purchase workers’ compensation insurance. Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system, which means that the employee is compensated regardless of fault.

Although the ideal workers’ compensation system should work this way, an employer and the workers’ compensation company may fight a worker’s claim. When this occurs, it becomes a long and difficult process to recover benefits. If successful, however, injured workers may be entitled to compensation for medical care, temporary disability, supplemental job displacement benefits, permanent disability, vocational rehabilitation, and death benefits.

Workers’ compensation benefits, though, do limit the legal recourse available to the worker. Essentially, workers’ compensation benefits are a tradeoff—an employee receives the benefit of a monetary award and the liability of the employer is limited.