Rare Circumstances Where You May Receive Pain And Suffering Benefits Under Workers' Comp

After you have suffered a serious injury at work, you may be covered under your workers' compensation insurance provider at work. If so, you might wonder if you will be entitled to compensation for your pain and suffering. While you may be entitled to compensation for your medical bills and lost wages to some extent, this might not be the case for your pain and suffering.

Workers' Compensation and Pain and Suffering

Regardless of how much you have suffered, there's a good chance that you will not be entitled to pain and suffering for your injuries at work. However, if you are injured due to someone's negligence, the courts have discretion on whether they will allow you to collect for pain and suffering. For example, if a coworker was playing a prank and you were injured as a result, you may be able to sue your coworker for pain and suffering. 

If you suffer from an emotional disturbance as a result of your pain and suffering, this will also lead to you possibly receiving additional compensation. For example, your injury might lead to you feeling disturbed and this might interfere with your ability to sleep. However, you will only receive these benefits under rare and extreme circumstances.

Third-Party Personal Injury Lawsuits

In addition to the fact that you were injured while at work, there may be a third party that was negligent and caused your injury. Most often, this is due to a piece of equipment being defective. Then, you may be able to seek compensation against the third-party. However, you will not be able to sue your employer.

Advantages of Workers' Compensation

The advantage of workers' compensation is that it is a no-fault system. This means that it doesn't matter if your employer was negligent or not. In some cases, an injury is unavoidable and nobody is at fault but you will still be entitled to workers' compensation benefits. In contrast, with a personal injury case, you must prove that the other party was negligent.

With a workers' compensation claim, you will not have to worry about your claim being dismissed in court. The system is more straightforward. However, your claim might be denied or the insurance provider might use bad faith tactics to delay your compensation. Therefore, you'll want to speak with a workers' compensation attorney if you run into any trouble when seeking compensation for your injuries.