To Comp or Not to Comp, That Is The Question
When you’re in an automobile accident in North Carolina AND you happen to be working, you might have TWO claims, not just one. What you might have is a plain old liability claim against the at-fault driver (their insurance company anyway) AND a potential worker’s compensation claim with your employer. So what does that mean?
Think of it this way: You’ve got the obvious liability claim. That’s the normal thing where you try to get reimbursed for your losses that the other party’s negligence caused. We would normally go after what I call the “holy trinity of personal injury damages” which includes medical expenses, pain and suffering, and lost income (there can be other stuff, but these sum up damages pretty nicely in most situations). I am happy to help you with these claims, so please call me to discuss any auto accident injury situation you have!
But you have a less obvious thing that might help you out: You have a potential worker’s compensation claim. Check out that link for basic info on comp claims, but essentially, what this means is IN ADDITION to the liability claim against the driver, you might have access to benefits through worker’s comp. What does comp get you? Generally…
- Payment for time out of work (but only 2/3 of your average weekly wage);
- Payment of your medical expenses (but they get to control what care you get);
- And to the extent you have any permanent impairment, payment for that.
So the next question is should you file a worker’s compensation claim in this situation? The answer is one of my favorites: It depends!
Let’s look at why you might want to file for comp benefits
- If you’re going to have a lot of expensive medical care, it’s nice to have someone else bear the brunt of that care.
- If you’re going to be out of work for an extended period of time (several weeks? months?) and you really can’t get along without some income, then comp is in a good position to help.
But sometimes it’s hard to answer those questions early in your claim. What’s more frustrating is that technically you should notify your employer within 30 days of the accident, so you kind of have to make this decision early, maybe before you have enough facts to know if it’s the right decision for you. Why might it not be the right decision?
Sometimes having worker’s comp on top of a liability claim is a “robbing Peter to pay Paul” situation. You see, worker’s comp has what’s called a lien against the “third party” (liability) claim. That means if you get something from the auto insurance folks and worker’s comp has paid you benefits, you have to pay worker’s comp back for what they paid out. Now, there are some protections afforded you in this situation, but they are somewhat flimsy.
How do you make this decision? It’s definitely a case by case, personal sort of decision that only you can make, and you should try to have as much info as possible before making it. As a general rule, in a normal situation where you’re just going to get chiropractic care after your accident and that’s it, then you probably don’t need to get comp involved as they’ll harass you about the care you prefer and then rob your liability claim later, so maybe more trouble than it’s worth. But on the other end of the spectrum, if the accident resulted in a need for surgery AND you’re going to be out of work for awhile, it makes a lot more sense in that situation to get comp on board. But there’s no hard and fast rules in this situation.
It’s complicated. If you have questions, call me at 919-929-2992.
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