Eligibility for San Antonio Work Injury Accidents

Every time you attend the workplace, you put yourself at risk for injury. Every work environment presents its own unique circumstances that can be dangerous for employees. Workers’ compensation are state-regulated programs that exist to address employees’ financial needs in the event of an occupational injury. Unfortunately, Texas is the only state that does not require employers to offer workers’ compensation policies for their workers. This means that, in cities like San Antonio, your company may not even maintain coverage in the event of a workplace accident.

If an employer in San Antonio or elsewhere in Texas decides not to offer workers’ compensation coverage for their workers, they are required by law to provide this information in writing to all new hires. These businesses are called ‘nonsubscribers’, and they may be vulnerable to personal injury lawsuits in the event of an occupational accident. Your company’s respective policy goes a long way in determining how much reparations you may be able to pursue.

Based on the severity of the injury and other factors related to the nature and extent of your injuries, workers’ compensation programs might provide various levels of coverage for damages. In order for an employee to be eligible for compensation for work injury accidents in San Antonio, a few basic aspects must be in place.

You may qualify for financial reimbursement from liable parties in the following situations:

• You can prove that you have done everything in your power to attend to the injuries you sustained.
• The employer does have workers’ compensation coverage; those seeking compensation must file a report of the injury within 30 days of the accident. Additionally, victims have a year to officially file the appropriate workers’ compensation procedurals. These dates are relative to the day you are able to identify the issue as work related.
• Regardless of fault, injuries are covered by businesses that include compensation coverage for their employees as long as the incident happened within the range of necessary work-related activities. This can also extend to include necessary travel for business.

Eligibility for workers’ compensation benefits can extend beyond just the employee. In the event that a worker dies in a San Antonio workplace accident, their spouse or family may be entitled to reimbursement for burial costs, death benefits for dependents, and even loss of income in the absence of the deceased’s financial contributions.

But there are also a few instances that do not automatically indicate you are entitled to compensation for damages. These include circumstances under which:

• Your injuries are deliberate or self-induced.
• Damages can be identified as a byproduct of unruly behavior in the workplace or brought on through intoxication or drug abuse.
• Injuries are caused by someone else in an altercation related to a personal disagreement unrelated to the workplace.
• The damages can be traced back to non-compulsory participation in a recreational or sporting event outside of the workplace and during off hours.
• The damage resulted from a natural disaster or other external and uncontrollable source of destruction (unless your job includes a significant risk of continued exposure to these forces).

Employers that do include workers’ compensation are safe from most forms of lawsuit settlement by injured employees. In any instance of Texas occupational injury, resolution through a claim or lawsuit is not necessarily required for full compensation; approximately 95% of all workplace injury settlements are handled outside of the court system in San Antonio by workers’ compensation lawyers in arbitration.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember after involvement in a workplace accident is that you should always seek a legal opinion and never discuss the incident with a third party before obtaining the opinion of a lawyer. In these cases, you’ll want to enlist the services of an experienced San Antonio work injury attorney with experience dealing with both insurance companies as well as other third parties.

The aftermath of an occupational accident can be a confusing time for victims and their families. In these trying times, guidance of an experienced attorney can help you recover maximum compensation for you and your loved ones. At the law firm of Carabin Shaw, our lawyers will stop at nothing to see you thoroughly compensated for all your injuries and damages.

Carabin Shaw’s knowledgeable team of attorneys are dedicated to ensuring that every San Antonio worker in every industry involved in an accident receives a chance for full reimbursement. One of our workplace injury attorneys will sit down with you, free of charge, for an obligatory initial consultation. If you need assistance determining your eligibility for compensation after a San Antonio work accident injury, contact our lawyers today at 210-222-2288.