Workers’ Compensation Claims AND Personal Injury Claims from the SAME Accident

Yep.  That’s a thing.  Well, two things, really.

Injury law can be really, really confusing the way it’s set up, particularly in North Carolina.  People often think since I’m a personal injury lawyer I know all about med mal cases.  I don’t.  They’re not really the same thing.  Same thing when they hear I do Workers’ Comp, they think I know all about Employment Law.  Once again, different things.  The strict nomenclature might lead you to believe that each case can be pigeon-holed into one category and one category only.  But that would maybe be too simple.

When you have an injury by accident, arising out of and sustained in the course of your employment, you often have a valid Worker’s Compensation claim in North Carolina.  But if that injury was caused in an accident that arose due to the negligence of another person, then you might also have an injury claim against that person.  Yes, you can have TWO types of claims from ONE accident.  Crazy, huh?

Of course, this has it’s benefits and its detriments.

The good thing about a Comp claim is that it keeps you current.  What I mean by that is that it pays you while you’re out of work, and it pays for your medical treatment.   This is unlike normal injury claims in NC where the victim has to bear their losses until the end, and then they try to get reimbursed for their losses.  The bad thing about having a double claim like this is NC law gives the Comp carrier (the insurance company for your employer) the right to get their money back from you IF you get money from the person who caused your injury.  Of course, it’s never that simple, and you have the power to try to whittle that down some, but that’s also not simple.

In a nutshell, you CAN have two claims from an on the job accident.  And if you do, you can almost know for sure that it’s going to get complicated, and you probably need some help.  Call me!  919-929-2992.