Many people in Orlando may believe that workers’ compensation cases are generally simple matters: one suffers a workplace injury, files a claim and receives compensation for their injury-related expenses. Yet while some cases can indeed find resolutions that easily, many others present complexities that can be difficult to understand.
In such cases, it may be easy to paint the employer as the proverbial “bad guy,” yet oftentimes there may be circumstances that, while tragic, have little to do with a company’s actions.
Worker’s death leads to wrongful death lawsuit
It is actually an employer’s alleged inactions at issue in a lawsuit filed by the family of a Texas man who died during his shift at a local fast-food restaurant. The man complained of chest pain while working. At his supervisor’s suggestion, he went to sit in the restaurant’s lobby. He was later found unresponsive. Despite receiving treatment at a local hospital, he died a few days later. His family now alleges in a wrongful death lawsuit that his employer’s inaction in not seeking immediate medical assistance contributed to his death.
The family sought a wrongful death lawsuit in this case because the fast-food chain for who the man worked does not carry workers’ compensation insurance. Rather, the law allows workers (or their representatives) to seek compensatory damages if their injuries are the result of their employers’ negligence.
Disputing employer liability
One simply being “on the clock” when they suffered an injury does not necessarily prove that an employer was negligent, however. In many cases, workers’ compensation coverage may be available regardless of fault. Yet at those where it is an issue, an insurer choosing to cite an employee’s contribution to their own injury is not unreasonable. Those making such a case may wish to enlist the services on an experienced attorney when doing so.