Suppose you’ve been injured in a car accident. In that case, the cause of your accident and the fault for your accident must be determined before you can accurately assess whether it is in your best interests to file legal action against others who may be responsible for the harm you’ve suffered. There is one notable exception to this general rule, which applies only in work-related car accident scenarios.
Work-Related Accidents
When work-related accidents cause injury, workers have different compensation opportunities available to them, depending upon whether they are eligible for workers’ comp benefits and depending upon the circumstances of their accident.
Suppose a worker is eligible for workers’ comp benefits (usually when a worker is classified as a part-time or full-time employee). In that case, they are generally entitled to a benefits award if they are injured while engaging in work-related activities. This eligibility applies on a no-fault basis, which means that benefits are awarded even in accident scenarios wherein the injured worker was at fault for the crash. The only exceptions to this rule apply when the worker in question was drunk or otherwise impaired at the time of the crash, the road rage of the worker caused the crash, or the worker was fraudulently trying to get hurt to benefit from a compensation award.
All Other Accident Types
An experienced car accident lawyer can confirm that personal injury lawsuits are fault-based, which means that in order to file a personal injury lawsuit, an injury victim cannot have been totally at fault for their injurious circumstances. For a personal injury lawsuit to be successful, it must be proven that someone other than the injury victim was partially or totally at-fault for the circumstances that caused the victim’s injuries.
This is one of the reasons why it is so important for injury victims (workers and non-workers) to speak with an attorney in the wake of sustaining injury. A lawyer can conduct a thorough and objective investigation into the circumstances of a crash to better ensure that the cause(s) of a crash are accurately assessed and the fault for the accident is properly evaluated. In the event that someone else’s negligence, recklessness, or intentionally harmful conduct caused a victim’s injuries, that victim should be entitled to a personal injury damages award in their favor.