What if You’re Injured in a Car Accident While On the Job?

For many of us, our jobs aren’t just in an office or in one central location. Rather, our jobs require that we get in our cars, and hit the roads or travel. But being on the roadways creates a work-related danger that you don’t have in an office—the risk of getting into a car accident.

Which System is Best?

If you are injured in a car accident while driving, and that driving is part of your job, there is an interplay of both personal injury law, and workers’ compensation laws. And while you do have a choice between getting medical care and attention through either system, there are pros and cons to both.

PIP Insurance

Your first option is to just get your medical care through the personal injury system—specifically, through your personal injury protection (PIP) benefits.

PIP does have its limitations—including the fact that it doesn’t pay for all of your medical expenses, but rather, only pays for 80% of your bills (unless you have additional coverage on your car insurance to pick up the balance).

PIP will also pay for 60% of your lost wages, which is similar to the 66% of lost wages that workers’ compensation pays.

One big benefit to workers’ compensation is that there is no maximum limit, whereas your PIP benefits are capped at whatever amount the policy is that you took out (usually, $10,000 total, no matter what you use it for).

Personal Injury Benefits

One big benefit to using the personal injury system, as opposed to workers’ compensation, is that there is more freedom to see and treat with the doctors of your own choosing, whereas workers’ compensation will require that you see their chosen doctors.

Regardless of which system you use, you do maintain the right to try to collect further damages from the other driver that caused your accident, as if it was a traditional personal injury case. This also allows you to try to collect things like pain and suffering, anxiety, loss of quality of life, and other noneconomic damages, that the workers’ compensation system does not compensate you for.

Note that although it is unlikely that your employer is liable for your car accident, you cannot sue your employer for work related accidents in the personal injury system. You can only sue your employer for workers’ compensation related matters.

Dealing With Liens

But if you do use workers’ compensation benefits to pay medical expenses related to a work related car accident, and you do get a verdict or settlement in your personal injury case, your workers’ compensation can assert a lien on your recovery—that is, they can ask to be paid back, in full or in part, any money they paid on your behalf, from the proceeds of your judgment or verdict.

If it all sounds confusing, that’s OK. A good workers’ compensation and injury attorney can help you understand the interplay between the two systems, and what route is best for you.

Questions about your workers’ compensation case?  Call us today. Schedule a consultation with the Tampa workers’ compensation lawyers at Barbas, Nunez, Sanders, Butler & Hovsepian today.

Sources:

myfloridacfo.com/division/wc/insurer/awwrate.htm

floir.com/Sections/PandC/ProductReview/PIPInfo.aspx