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When you spend roughly one-third of your life at work, accidents are bound to happen.
In 2019 alone, the National Safety Council's Injury Facts sheet reported 48.3 million injuries and 173,040 preventable deaths in the workplace. (And these are just the numbers that were actually reported.)
With few exceptions, Utah law requires employers to carry workers' compensation insurance to protect employees who are injured at work. This helps cover medical expenses and provides a modest wage to employees until they are able to return to work. In the case of a permanent injury or workplace death, workers' compensation insurance pays disability benefits to the employee or death benefits to an employee's family. It doesn't matter whether the accident was the employer's or the employee's fault.
But workers' compensation is no get-rich-quick scheme. The benefits are bare-bones and designed mainly to help keep the workers' families afloat while employees recover from work injuries. Most workers would give up their workers' compensation benefits in a heartbeat if it meant the initial accident or injury never happened in the first place. Even with modest insurance coverage, the road to physical and financial recovery is never easy.
One workers compensation insurance company encourages employees to stay safe with the tagline, "Be careful out there." But another reason to "be careful out there" is that insurance companies do not like to pay for these claims. They will often use every means at their disposal to delay or avoid payment altogether.
Such was the case for Jim (whose name has been changed) before he sought professional legal help.
Boys will be boys! The 'horseplay' rule
Jim was just out of high school and working what, for him, was a great-paying job building semi tractor trailers. Most of his work included building aluminum and steel frames, welding, riveting, and using pneumatic tools to connect parts of the trailer to each other.
Occasionally, as young people sometimes do, Jim and his co-workers would find themselves goofing around with each other during and after work. A common activity was to take a small amount of pea-gum (a sticky, putty-like substance used as a gasket between aluminum parts), put it on the end of an air hose used for operating tools, and shoot it at co-workers.
One day, while working, Jim turned around just as a co-worker shot at him with a piece of pea-gum. The projectile hit him in the head and squished his right eyeball like a grape, blinding him in that eye. The workers' compensation carrier denied liability for the injury stating that accidents occurring during "horseplay" are not compensable.
Jim came to see Davis & Sanchez for help. They filed a complaint with the Utah Labor Commission, arguing that while the "horseplay rule" is valid under Utah law, their client was not participating at the time. He was a non-participating victim. And even if he were a participant, the "horseplay rule" cannot be used as a defense against liability if (a) the employer knows that the horseplay takes place on a regular basis; (b) someone with supervisory authority participates in it; and (c) the employer makes no effort to stop the practice.
The case settled, as do 90% of cases for Davis & Sanchez, with Jim being awarded medical expenses and wages for missed work and permanent blindness in one eye.
Most workplace injuries aren't reported
What happened to Jim could easily happen to you or to those you love.
In 2019, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that an average of 2.8 per 100 full-time workers were injured on the job that year. The most common non-fatal injuries were sprains, strains and tears. Transportation accidents accounted for the most common cause of work-related deaths.
When you're dealing with the lasting effects of a workplace injury or death, the last thing you want is a financial burden to carry as well. However, many workers are unaware of the benefits available to them through worker's compensation. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration estimates that half of workplace injuries go unreported.
Have you been injured at work? Get help!
If you suspect you aren't receiving the compensation you rightfully deserve for a workplace injury or illness, it's important to act quickly. Let the award-winning team of attorneys at Davis & Sanchez help. As a law firm focused solely on workers' compensation, Davis & Sanchez offers free case evaluations to help you determine if hiring an attorney is your best option.
Contact them today to get the help you need.
