How Does Workers’ Compensation Protect You In a Construction Accident?
March 13, 2021 Posted In Uncategorized
Even in the most ideal circumstances, accidents still happen on construction sites. If you suffer an injury in a Riverside construction accident, workers’ compensation coverage provides you with essential protection. In California, employers are required by law to carry workers’ comp insurance.
What Does Workers Compensation Insurance Cover?
Workers’ compensation coverage is an insurance program that covers lost wages and medical treatment for work-related injuries or illness. It also covers services needed to help an employee recover and return to work. Here are some examples of the available benefits:
Medical Costs for Immediate Treatment
After a construction accident, you will need medical attention, and those costs are the employer’s responsibility since you were injured on the job. This is where workers’ compensation insurance comes into play. In this case, the policy can pay for the ambulance ride, emergency room visit, hospital stay, surgeries, prescription medications, and follow-up treatment.
Lost Wages
You may have to miss work to treat and heal from your injuries or illness. Workers’ compensation benefits can cover a portion of your missed wages/lost income for a temporary disability. Temporary disability benefits are paid every two weeks after a doctor confirms you cannot work or are limited in the kind or amount of work you can do. Temporary disability ends either once you return to work, are advised by the doctor that you can return, or your condition stabilizes and are eligible for permanent disability benefits. In California, there are only 104 weeks of temporary disability benefits available within a five-year period from the date of the accident.
Future Medical or Treatment Expenses
Benefits for any ongoing care that you need and will require in the future if your injury or illness is severe. That can include, for example, physical therapy, surgery, rehabilitation, and treatment from specialists. Even if you never return to work, your employer’s workers’ comp insurer may still be responsible for your ongoing care.
Funeral and Death Benefits
In the worst of cases, workers’ compensation may cover funeral expenses as well as death benefits to your dependents.
Illness
If you become ill due to a construction accident after being exposed to harmful chemicals, for instance, workers’ comp benefits will pay for your treatment and any ongoing care.
Repetitive Injury
Some injuries on construction sites are due to repetitive motion. Repetitive injuries, such as carpal tunnel, are still covered as work-related injuries under workers’ compensation law.
Permanent Disability
If a construction accident results in a permanent disability, you are entitled to permanent disability benefits for the loss of future earning capacity. Disabilities are rated on a scale of 0 to 100%, and if it is under 100%, you are considered partially disabled. A workers’ comp policy will pay weekly for a set period of time for a partial disability. If you are 100% disabled, or permanently totally disabled, you will receive weekly payments for the rest of your life at the same rate as temporary disability. If your partial disability is rated between 70 to 99%, you are entitled to a life pension and will receive an additional amount for the rest of your life after partial disability payments end.
Legal Costs
As part of the policy, workers’ comp insurance has employer’s liability coverage, which can help pay attorney fees, court costs, and settlements. However, there are a limited amount of circumstances in which you are entitled to file a lawsuit against your employer in California. Those include intentional harm, or if your employer has insufficient workers’ compensation insurance or no workers’ comp insurance.
Call Us For Help
For help with filing a workers’ compensation claim and getting the benefits you are entitled to, contact our San Bernardino personal injury attorneys at Hanson & Mouri. We offer free initial consultations, call (951) 688-0006 today.