You were using a power tool on a construction site when you had a muscle spasm in your shoulder and you accidentally cut yourself. It could also be possible for someone working in an office to slam their hand in a door and break several fingers or for a salesperson to turn around to talk to someone and accidentally slipped down a flight of stairs.
Sometimes people get hurt at work because of situations well outside of their control, and sometimes a hurt worker is directly responsible for their own injuries. If you caused your workplace injury, does that mean you cannot secure workers’ compensation benefits?
Workers’ compensation provides no-fault coverage
The good news for you as someone recently hurt on the job in Georgia is that it does not matter if there’s security footage of you tripping over your shoelaces. Provided that it was not intentional, your fault in the incident that left you injured does not really matter in most cases.
Workers’ compensation is a no-fault form of insurance. For you to get benefits, it is not necessary to show that you were completely innocent in what happened. You also don’t have to show that your employer broke the law or put you at risk somehow. However, there could still be a situation in which your fault could affect your benefits other than when a worker intentionally hurts themselves.
Intoxication on the job could affect claims
It is common practice for workers hurt on the job to have to undergo drug and alcohol testing when they pursue medical care. If someone fails a drug test after getting hurt at work, the company that employs them could potentially use that to defend against their benefits claim.
If that employer can show that an individual’s impairment directly caused their injury, then that worker may not qualify for benefits. Otherwise, whether you made a mistake in the order of steps you take on the job or lost your balance, your minor mistake won’t lead to a denial of your workers’ compensation benefits claim.
Realizing you may qualify for workers’ compensation can take some of the fear out of a recent injury on the job. You can get local support from Steven L. Morgan by calling the office 912-289-0640 or sending us an email for more information about your rights and options.
