Products & Services

Workers Compensation and Employer Liability

Workers Compensation laws are designed to provide a satisfactory means of handling occupational injuries. They evolved as the world economy became less agrarian and more industrial, and developments in high- speed machinery and assembly-line techniques caused a sharp increase in the frequency of industrial injuries and diseases.

Before the development of workers compensation laws, common law held that an employer was responsible for an employee's injury only if they were caused by the employer's negligence. The burden of proof lay with the employee. Because of the slow, costly, and uncertain legal process involved in establishing proof, many injuries remained uncompensated. The serious social problems that resulted forced legislatures to find some way to compensate injured workers and their families.

Workers compensation legislation was enacted to solve these problems. Under the workers compensation system, employees who suffer work related injuries are entitled to receive benefits from their employers workers compensation insurance company.

Having originated in Europe in the late 19th century, workers compensation laws were first enacted in the U.S. in the early 1900s. Though the highly industrialized states were the first to adopt this legislation, the remaining states eventually followed. Today, workers compensation laws are in place in all states.

Common- Law Duties of the Employer to Employees

Under common law, employers have five responsibilities to their employees:

• Provide a safe place to work.
• Provide employees with an adequate number of competent fellow workers.
• Provide safe tools and equipment.
• Warn employees of inherent (not immediately obvious) danger.
• Make and enforce safety rules.

Current Objectives of Workers Compensation

The primary objectives of workers compensation laws are as follows:

• Supply sure, prompt, and reasonable income and medical benefits to victims of job-related injuries, or income benefits to their dependents regardless of fault.
• Provide an exclusive remedy for work-related injuries and reduce court delays, cost, and workloads arising out of personal-injury litigation.
• Relieve charities of the financial drain created by uncompensated industrial accidents.
• Eliminate payment of fees to lawyers, as well as time-consuming trials and appeals.
• Encourage employer interest in safety and rehabilitation through experience rating.
• Promote open investigation of accident causes (rather than the concealment of fault) to aid in loss-prevention efforts and reduce human suffering.