Workers compensation

Workers' Compensation laws exist in all U.S. states to protect employees who are injured while on the job. Every employee who is injured on the job has an absolute right to medical care for that injury, and in many cases monetary payments to compensate for resulting temporary or permanent disabilities.

There are often benefits available to dependents of workers killed on the job.

Most employers are required to carry workers' compensation insurance, and in most states there are heavy financial penalties for an employer's not having insurance. In many states there are public uninsured employer funds to pay benefits to workers employed by companies who illegally fail to purchase insurance.

Many employers vigorously contest employee claims for workers' compensation payments; in any contested case, or in any case involving serious injury, an attorney with specific experience in handling workers' compensation claims on behalf of injured workers should be consulted. Many if not most state laws provide that a claimant's attorney fees are limited to a certain percentage of an award, and may be paid only from a successful recovery or award.

It is illegal for an employer to fire an employee for reporting a workplace injury or for filing a workers' compensation claim; it is illegal to not hire someone for having filed a workers' compensation claim in the past. However, employers can consult commercial databases of claims data and it would seem nearly impossibe to prove that an employer discriminated against a job applicant because of his or her workers' compensation claims history.