Know Your Rights to New Jersey Workers' Compensation
Workers' compensation isn't meant to be a struggle with your employer or its insurance carrier. It's intended instead to function as a fair way to protect injured workers and their families from the loss of income and disability that can follow a serious on-the-job injury. If you have been hurt at work, contact the law firm of Fred Rabinowitz, Attorney at Law for a free consultation about your rights under the New Jersey workman's comp system.
You don't need to prove negligence or fault in a workers' comp claim
Because workers' compensation is supposed to function as a no-fault income protection system, once you've established an inability to work as a result of a work-related injury, you should not have to encounter any problems in qualifying for benefits. Many applicants do, however, and the advice of a knowledgeable lawyer might be necessary to protect your rights.
Our law firm has seen injured workers encounter problems with their claims for one or more of the following reasons:
- Denial of an initial claim
- Denial that the injury was work-related
- Failure of the employer to report the injury to its workers' comp insurance carrier
- Misdiagnosis of the injury by a company doctor
- Failure to provide medical benefits
- Improperly calculated temporary disability benefits
- Unjustified termination or suspension of benefits
- Disputes as to the size of the injured worker's salary as a base for benefits
We not only make sure that workers receive the full amount of their benefits under the workers' compensation system, we also investigate the circumstances of your injury to see whether you have the right to bring a personal injury lawsuit against a defendant unrelated to your employer.
Sometimes you can get both workers' comp and personal injury damages
Although you need to prove negligence in a personal injury case, the range of damages you can recover is generally much broader than what you can collect in a workers' comp claim. Whenever possible, we file both workers' compensation and personal injury claims for the same factory, construction accident, or other work-related accident.
It's essential to understand that workers' compensation is an essential right, and your employer cannot penalize you or otherwise retaliate when you file a claim. Immigrant workers are also protected under the workers' comp system, and even foreign workers who are out of status have the right to compensation for injuries on the job. In a workers’ compensation case, as in a personal injury case, you do not pay attorneys’ fees unless you receive compensation for your injuries. In workers’ compensation cases, attorneys’ fees are awarded by a workers’ compensation judge at the conclusion of the case.
To learn more about your right to benefits for lost income and medical treatment, contact New Jersey workers' compensation lawyer Fred Rabinowitz for a free consultation in Clifton.
