Information Site: Personal Injury

If you suffer an industrial disease or a work-related injury, you should file a workers’ compensation claim as soon as possible. Depending on your situation, you may be eligible for lost wages, medical expenses and/or maintenance medical treatment. To learn more about your potential benefits, contact an experienced workman’s compensation lawyer, Mary Jeffers, now.

Colorado Workman’s Compensation Injury Attorney

When you are injured at work, legal and financial aspects need to be immediately addressed in order that you obtain the maximum financial recovery from your case. Once you receive financial compensation, you will better be able to achieve quality medical treatment during your recovery period after an accidental injury which makes a difference in how well you recover. Attorney Mary Jeffers can help you, as the victim receive compensation to pay for your medical benefits, replace lost wages, and compensate you and your family for work-related expenses.

Unlike personal injury cases, in Colorado workers’ compensation cases, when a third-party liability case is also involved, a subrogation claim comes into play. For example, if you are driving a truck in the course and scope of your employment, and you are rear-ended through no fault of your own, you would have a claim against both your employer, and the person who hit you. In the event, your employer pays benefits to you under the workers’ compensation claim, the insurance company then “stands in your shoes”, and can recover what was paid to you from your personal injury claim against the person who rear-ended your vehicle.

An Injured Worker Cannot Sue his or her Employer, but Can Bring a Claim

Many injured workers do not want to sue their employer for fear of retaliation. What most victims do not understand is in Colorado an injured worker cannot sue in district or federal court. An injured workers’ exclusive remedy is to bring a workers’ compensation claim against their employer. This is why workers’ compensation is sometimes viewed as a compromise between employees and employers. Employees give up the right to sue for large awards in court in exchange for normally quicker reimbursement for work-related injuries and illnesses. Employers accept fault for these injuries and illnesses even if they were not responsible, however they no longer have to worry about being tied up in court for weeks, and exposure to large jury awards.

How Workers’ Compensation became an Administrative Remedy

In the early 1900s, the courts in America were flooded with lawsuits from injured workers against their employers. The states decided that if the workers’ compensation cases were not removed form the judicial system, the courts would collapse. Therefore, all states implemented an “administrative system” in which the workers’ compensation claims were removed from district or superior court, and placed in an administrative context. Now, injured workers in Colorado have a right to a hearing, but do not have a right to a jury trial. Even though the injured worker does not have a right to a jury trial, the rules of evidence control at hearing.

When workers’ compensation cases were removed form the Colorado district courts to places where hearings occur before an administrative law judge, there was something in it for both the employer, and the victim. For the employer, the injured worker could no longer recover general damages or damages for pain and suffering. For the victimized injured worker, the employer could no longer argue that the employee was at fault for his or her injury.

Death Benefits in the Workers’ Compensation system

In the event, a work-related injury eventually results in death, certain survivors have the right to receive death benefits through Colorado’s worker’s compensation system. If someone is killed on the job, worker’s compensation provides weekly payments to the surviving dependent(s), and funeral expenses up to a certain amount. Death benefits are calculated in the same manner as temporary total disability benefits, and both are subject to a maximum benefit rate. Death benefits are different in that there is also a minimum benefit rate. Death benefit payments are made for the lifetime of a dependent spouse, or until remarriage.

In the event, a surviving spouse remarries and there are no dependent children, a lump sum equal to two years of benefits will be paid (less any previous lump sum payments or overpayments). In the event there are dependent surviving children, the spouse’s benefits are reapportioned among the remaining dependents. Any dependent child, even a child to whom child support was paid or owed, may be eligible for payments until 18, or until age 21 if the child is a full-time student. In the event there is no spouse or dependent child, other relatives such as a parent, grandparent, sister or brother, may be eligible for partial benefits. These partial benefits are paid for six years.

Finally, if the deceased is under the age of 21, with no dependents, payment of $15,000.00 is payable to the parents of the deceased. All of these benefits are reduced by fifty percent of the death benefits received by the dependents through social security.

Does your Employer Have to Retrain you in Colorado if Your Are Unable to Return to Work?

In the 1980’s, if an injured worker was not able to return to his or her previous occupation, the employer and the insurance company were required to offer vocational rehabilitation. Vocational rehabilitation is the process of retraining an injured worker as part of recovering from an injury or illness. The Colorado Worker’s Compensation Act no longer requires the insurance company and the employer to offer vocational rehabilitation. Sometimes an injured individual can eventually return to his or her position even without retraining.