When consulting with an employee injured at work and discussing a potential Missouri workers comp claim, many work related injury victims are concerned that filing a work comp claim could jeopardize their employment. If you are terminated or fired for filing a work comp claim that is called retaliatory termination or discharge and it is against the law. More importantly, work injury victims need to get a Missouri work comp lawyer involved soon so they know their rights and obligations to make sure they maximize their benefits and avoid bad situations with their employer over the claim. It is very rare that termination over a work comp claim actually occurs.
Another important issue to address early on is if another party, outside of the employer, is at fault for the injury claim, for example a negligent driver crashes into you while on a work related errand, in this case, and many others, Missouri law allows for a “third party lawsuit”. This permits the injured employee from not only receiving Missouri or Illinois work comp benefits, which oftentimes are not enough to fully compensate for severe personal injuries, but also having the benefits of common law of negligence and making a claim against the individual or entity responsible for your injures outside of the work comp court.
See 3rd Party and Work Comp Settlement by St Louis Injury Lawyer Ben Sansone for $500,000
Lastly, recent court ruling in Missouri have opened up a pathway through a negligent coworker to get to more insurance coverage of the employer. See Missouri Workers' Compensation Law - Coworker Liability
Benjamin Sansone is dedicated to protecting clients that need to file claims against their employers by getting substantial monetary results, and helping to keep a good relationship between employee and employer during the process.
