What is Workers’ Compensation and How Is It Different From Other Damages Claims?

When you file a claim for an on-the-job injury in Georgia, you do not have the same rights that you might have in other injury cases such as a car accident or a slip and fall.  The biggest difference has to do with pain and suffering: Georgia law does not permit an injured employee to ask for money damages for pain and suffering.

Why did the Georgia legislature take away these rights from injured workers?  Can you opt out of Georgia’s workers’ compensation scheme?

No Right to Sue for Damages

Workers’ compensation laws in Georgia are designed to make it easy for an injured worker to file a claim.

When injured, you do not need to prove that anyone was negligent. You only need to show that you were performing duties for the benefit of your employer and that your injury arose out of and in the course of employment.   You can collect even if you were negligent. For example, you can recover even if you caused your own injury (i.e. running a forklift into a wall or falling from a ladder).

Since negligence is not an issue in a workers’ compensation claim, an injured worker cannot sue his employer for pain and suffering. Unfortunately, you do not have any choice in the matter.  If you were injured on the job, your only recovery against your employer is through workers’ compensation.  If you tried to sue your employer for damages, your case would be thrown out.  In Georgia, workers’ compensation is an “exclusive remedy.”

This may not seem fair or reasonable to you at all. However, every state in the United States imposes workers’ compensation laws on the employers and employees within that state.

Georgia workers’ compensation pays for your economic damage (missed time from work) and medical treatment for the injury.  Non-economic damages like pain, suffering, and scars will not be compensated by a workers’ compensation insurance company.

As an injured employee you can sue third parties for pain and suffering and money damages. For example, you are allowed to sue a negligent company doctor for malpractice, a manufacturer for products liability, or a third party who has caused an auto accident.

Read more about the history of the worker’s compensation system in Georgia here.

How the Worker’s Compensation System Works

Today, the workers’ compensation law provides for specific benefits to be paid to employees for injuries arising out of and in the course of employment, without regard to negligence or fault, and at the same time, provides the employer with limited liability.

In Georgia, employers obtain worker’s compensation coverage through private insurers or programs of self-insurance. The rights granted an employee under the law preclude any other legal remedies against an employer by an employee due to a work-related injury.

The law is applicable to all employers, including public corporations and nonprofit organizations that have at least three full-time or part-time employees.

There are, however, several categories of workers who are specifically exempted from the workers’ compensation law: federal government employees, railroad employees, farmers and farm laborers, and domestic servants, to name a few.

Atlanta Workers’ Compensation Practice Can Be Very Adversarial

You might think that an insurance payment system that does not require a showing of negligence would be characterized by friendly and cooperative relations between employers and employees. You might assume that this type of cooperation would especially be the case for long time employees who had put forth years of loyal service.

Unfortunately, any such assumptions would be incorrect.

Worker’s compensation practice is perhaps the most adversarial area of law in Georgia, second only to divorce and criminal defense. Employers and workers’ compensation insurance companies do not view injured workers as people that need help, but as problems to be solved as quickly and cheaply as possible.

You may feel surprised, disappointed, and hurt to discover that the “family atmosphere” you once enjoyed on the job has disappeared, perhaps replaced by outright hostility. Your HR supervisor may be promising that “we’ll take care of this for you” and instructing you not to hire a lawyer, while at the same time referring you to an industrial clinic doctor who clearly does not have your best interest at heart.

If you’ve been injured on the job and find yourself with these concerns, pay attention to your hunches. If you sense that you are not getting quality medical care or that your employer or its insurer is giving you the run-around, contact a qualified, experienced worker’s compensation attorney for advice that is focused on you and what is in your best interest.