Personal Injury Attorneys
Is there a difference between a workers’ compensation claim and a personal injury claim?
Yes!
In personal injury, whether you’re injured on the job or not, you must prove that someone else was at fault or legally responsible for your injuries. In a personal injury case you can collect for things that you can’t collect for in workers’ compensation—most importantly, pain and suffering. But in personal injury, whether it be a construction accident or car accident, you can’t bring claim against your employer or a co-worker, even if they’re at fault.
That’s not to say you can’t have both a workers’ compensation and a personal injury claim arising out of the same work-related accident—it happens all the time. In these situations, the personal injury claim must be brought against a third-party, that is, someone other than your employer or co-worker.