The workers’ compensation checks started coming after you got hurt on the job, but they cover only part of your wages, and the company whose crew left the trench unshored or whose lift failed has not paid a cent. In New Jersey, a work injury can lead to a lawsuit beyond workers’ compensation when someone other than your employer or a coworker caused your injury, such as a general contractor, another subcontractor, a property owner, or an equipment maker. An Essex County workplace accident attorney at Bendit Weinstock can identify every company involved and pursue that second claim.
What Workers’ Compensation Pays and What It Leaves Out
New Jersey workers’ compensation pays benefits whether or not your employer was negligent. Your employer’s coverage must provide the necessary medical, surgical, and hospital treatment to cure and relieve the effects of the injury. While you are temporarily unable to work, it pays 70% of your weekly wages, up to a weekly maximum that the state sets each year. Losing all or part of the use of a listed body part is paid for all or a share of the weeks the schedule sets for that part. A disability rated as a percentage of total disability is paid for that share of 600 weeks.
The workers’ compensation system comes with a trade-off. Under the workers’ compensation law’s exclusive-remedy section, workers’ compensation bars most lawsuits against your employer and your coworkers. The section makes an exception for an intentional wrong, and a lawyer should judge whether that exception fits your accident. The benefit schedule has no payment for pain and suffering or for loss of enjoyment of life.
Who You Can Sue Besides Your Employer
New Jersey’s third-party statute says that your right to workers’ compensation does not bar a lawsuit against a third person who is liable for your injury. The statute defines a third person to include corporations, companies, firms, and partnerships as well as individuals. The exclusive-remedy section protects your employer and the people who work for it. Its text does not reach the other companies on a job site. If a staffing agency placed you or a general contractor directed your tasks, a lawyer has to sort out which company legally employed you.
Outside parties that can be responsible for a work injury include:
- A general contractor or construction manager that ran the site
- Another subcontractor whose crew created the hazard
- The owner of the property or project where you were working
- The manufacturer or seller of a machine, tool, or safety device that failed
- A driver from another company who struck you in a work zone
The facts of your accident decide which companies are responsible.
Why Essex County Job Sites Involve So Many Companies
Across Essex County and the rest of New Jersey, workers build and repair roads and bridges, put up apartment and office buildings, and run machinery in warehouses and industrial plants. A single project can bring together a property owner, a general contractor, several subcontractors, an equipment rental company, and delivery drivers. More companies on a site mean more chances that someone other than your employer caused the injury. A scaffold built by one trade, a floor opening left uncovered by another, or a forklift that came from a rental yard can each make a different company responsible.
Under New Jersey’s Product Liability Act, a manufacturer or seller can be held liable only if the injured person proves that the product that caused the harm was not reasonably safe for its intended purpose. The cause must be a manufacturing flaw, inadequate warnings or instructions, or a defective design. In our construction accident cases, we investigate job site conditions, safety practices, and the role each contractor played.
What a Third-Party Lawsuit Can Recover
The third-party statute says your workers’ compensation benefits do not set the measure of damages in the lawsuit. In a negligence case, a New Jersey jury is instructed that the injured person can recover money for pain and suffering, disability, and loss of enjoyment of life, and that no table or formula sets the amount. The Product Liability Act likewise counts pain and suffering, mental anguish, and emotional harm as part of the harm a product can cause.
Expect the other side to argue that you were careless. In most third-party cases, New Jersey’s comparative negligence statute allows recovery when your share of fault is not greater than the combined fault of the parties you sue, and it reduces your damages by your percentage. A worker found 20% at fault recovers 80% of the damages. A worker found 54% at fault recovers nothing.
How Your Workers’ Compensation Benefits Get Paid Back
The carrier must keep paying the benefits you qualify for until the outside party pays. The insurance carrier that paid your benefits generally has repayment rights in the third-party case. If you recover at least as much as the carrier owes you under workers’ compensation, the carrier is released from paying further benefits and is reimbursed for the medical expenses and benefits it already paid.
The carrier pays its share of your legal costs: expenses of suit up to $750 and an attorney’s fee of up to 33 1/3% of the amount the carrier gets back or no longer has to pay. If you recover less than the carrier owes you, the carrier remains liable for the difference plus its share of your legal costs and is repaid only the part of its past payments that exceeds those sums.
If the carrier serves written notice on the outside party before that party pays you, the outside party or its insurer must deduct the carrier’s share from your settlement or judgment and pay it to the carrier.
The Deadlines That Control a Third-Party Claim
Three deadlines matter most:
Two Years to Sue
New Jersey’s general deadline for an injury lawsuit is two years after the claim accrues. Count from the date of the accident to be safe.
One Year Before the Carrier Can Step In
If you have not settled with the outside party or sued it within one year of the accident, your employer or its insurance carrier can send you a written demand and, 10 days later, settle with that party or sue it in your name. The carrier’s settlement or suit bars any further claim by you against that party. If the carrier collects more than it owes you plus its expense of suit, the excess goes to you.
90 Days for a Government Owner
A New Jersey town, county, or state agency can be the outside party, for example as the public owner of a road project. The New Jersey Tort Claims Act then generally requires you to present a notice of claim to that public entity within 90 days after the claim accrues. The same act bars pain and suffering damages against a public entity unless the injury is a substantial permanent loss of a bodily function, a permanent disfigurement, or a dismemberment and the medical treatment expenses exceed $3,600. In any award against a public entity, the court also subtracts workers’ compensation and other benefits you received or are entitled to receive that duplicate part of the award, except benefits paid by another party at fault.
The deadlines in your case are based on numerous factors. Waiting to pursue legal options can cause you to lose your right to compensation. Talk with a lawyer as soon as possible to determine deadlines.
How a Personal Injury Attorney Can Help
Bendit Weinstock was founded in 1957, and our office is in West Orange in Essex County. We handle workers’ compensation claims for injured employees and review whether a personal injury claim is available against someone outside your employer. In a third-party case, our attorneys:
- Investigate job site conditions, safety practices, and contractor roles
- Identify all available sources of recovery, including third-party claims
- Evaluate how a third-party claim fits alongside your workers’ compensation benefits
- Handle insurer and defense communications from the start
- Prepare your case with trial readiness in mind, even when settlement is the goal
Your workers’ compensation paperwork, any incident report, photos of the site, and the names of the companies on the job help us identify everyone involved.
Talk With an Essex County Workplace Accident Attorney
If another company’s mistake caused your work injury, you could have a claim beyond workers’ compensation, and the one-year takeover rule counts from the day of the accident. Contact Bendit Weinstock to schedule a free case evaluation with our trial lawyers in West Orange.