Generally, no. To pursue a claim for workers’ compensation benefits, a worker needs only be on the job and working within the scope of their employment at the time of the injury or illness; fault is not a consideration.
Working within the scope of one’s employment typically means carrying out a job responsibility or duty. Therefore, an injured worker can still be eligible to recover monetary compensation, even when the employer (or someone else) did nothing wrong. In a nutshell, workers’ compensation claims are strictly no-fault claims.
Also, when it comes to Lawrenceville workers’ compensation claims, there is a distinction between employees and independent contractors. Unlike employees, independent contractors are not usually subject to strict control and sometimes set their own work hours.
In general, the more power that someone exercises over a worker, the more likely it is that the relationship is an employer-employee relationship. Likewise, employees typically receive a W-2 form at tax time, while independent contractors receive a 1099 form.
The distinction between employers and independent contractors is important because independent contractors are not eligible to make a workers’ compensation claim arising from an on-the-job injury. Instead, these benefits are only applicable when there is an employer-employee relationship in existence at the time of the accident.
