As a layman, you may not understand the nuances of personal injury and work injury law. There are many attorneys and law firms that handle both personal injury law and workers’ compensation law. The two fields of activity are often paired as both deal with casualties. However, individual regions have distinctly different laws and procedural rules.
Personal Injury Lawyer
An attorney who provides legal services to individuals who claim they have been mentally or physically injured through the negligence of another person, government agency, business, or other entity is known as a personal injury lawyer. Personal injury attorneys practice primarily in the area of law known as tort law, you can find more information on flahurt.com/ft-lauderdale-hollywood, which may offer insights into legal resources specific to the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood region.
Although the term “trial lawyer” is used to refer to personal injury lawyers, many other types of lawyers, including defense attorneys and prosecutors, also appear in court proceedings, and most personal injury claims are resolved without a trial.
What Is a Personal Injury Case?
A bodily injury occurs when someone is negligent and injures another person. State tort laws govern these types of cases. Unlike workers compensation claims, personal injury cases deal specifically with negligence. To be successful, a personal injury plaintiff must prove an element of negligence through a majority of evidence: the defendant had a duty, breached that duty, and the breach of duty caused damage. Typical cases of personal injury include car accidents, medical malpractice, slips and falls, defective products, and other claims in which someone is injured. Personal injury claims are heard in civil courts at the federal or state level. A jury usually determines fault and the type and amount of damages that should be awarded.
Work Cover
WorkCover is a worker’s compensation insurance company. In the event of an accident at work, WorkCover will pay the employee’s compensation, not the employer’s. Workers’ compensation insurance is compulsory in Australia. It benefits both employees and employers. Labor compensation protects employers by not having to pay wages or expenses while an employee is off work to recover.
Differences Between a Personal Injury Lawyer and a Work Cover Lawyer
The biggest and most important difference between personal injury claims and workers’ compensation claims is that personal injury claims are based on negligence, whereas workers’ compensation claims are not.
In order to recover damages from someone due to a car accident, slip, or any kind of bodily harm, the other party must be at fault.
Another important difference is the type of coverage available. Personal injury claims entitle you to a wider range of damages than workers’ compensation claims. This includes pain and suffering, loss of earning power, and punitive damages.
Personal Injury Lawsuits: You Must Prove Someone Was at Fault for Your Injury
To understand the concept of negligence in personal injury claims, consider a typical slip-and-fall case. Just because you slipped and fell on someone else’s property doesn’t mean the owner (or anyone else) was at fault. Accidents happen without anyone’s fault.
To recover compensation for slipping on someone else’s property, you and your attorney must demonstrate that the other person failed to maintain the property. In other words, you have to show that the other person did something wrong. Similarly, in the case of a car accident, you can claim damages against the other driver only if the other driver was at fault.
Workers’ Comp Cases: Fault is Not Required
In workers’ injury lawsuits, workers injured on the job are entitled to workers’ injury benefits, with a few very limited exceptions. Unemployment benefits have nothing to do with negligence. You do not have to prove that your employer or co-workers have done something wrong to receive workers’ compensation benefits. Even if you were at fault and your negligence caused the damage, you are still entitled to workers’ compensation benefits.
Workers’ Comp vs. Personal Injury: Damages for Pain and Suffering
The biggest difference between a personal injury claim and a work injury claim is that you are not entitled to compensation with a work injury claim. If you make a personal injury claim, you are entitled to compensation for all damages suffered.
Damages include loss of income, loss of ability to work, medical expenses, future medical expenses, permanent disability, pain and suffering, loss of enjoyment of life (pleasure damages), and punitive damages for wrongdoers.
If an accident occurs while you are at work, you will not receive compensation for pain and suffering. This is because the concept of workers’ compensation is a compromise between workers and employers.
We hope that you will find this article useful. Stay safe!
