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If you have been injured in the course of your employment, in most instances your case is subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of your state's workers' compensation system, and you may not file a lawsuit and obtain a jury trial, as is the case in most injury cases.

This can be a mixed blessing. In a workers' compensation case, you don't have to prove that your employer was negligent; you don't have to pay the high costs associated with a civil trial; and in most cases you don't have to wait years for your money. In many cases, if you file the necessary paperwork, you can get start receiving disability and other payments almost immediately after your injury. The downside to a workers' compensation case is that you cannot recover the large damages that can be obtained in a successful jury trial.

There are, however, ways to avoid the workers' compensation trap. In cases where the employer knew or should have known that the workplace was unsafe and likely to cause injury, an injured employee may be able to sue the employer directly for allowing such unsafe conditions to occur in the workplace. Additionally, if an employee is injured by a piece of defective machinery or equipment in the workplace, he or she may be able to sue all of the parties involved in the design, engineering, manufacture, distribution, sale, and installation of the defective machinery.

 

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