Work Injuries Caused by Someone Else

At Adeszko, Abate & Green, our attorneys handle both personal injury claims against other parties and workers compensation claims for our clients injured on the job.  This places our clients in the absolute best position when they have both types of cases simultaneously.

Imagine you are an employee who regularly travels for work and is traveling on the job.  You could be in sales going from one call to another or an employed delivery driver or a number of other traveling employment situations.  While driving, you are rear ended by a negligent driver who is not paying attention.  What type of case do you have?

The fact that you were injured when you were within the scope of your employment and your injury arose out of that employment would mean that you have a workers’ compensation claim.

The fact that you were injured by another negligent driver means that you have a third party claim against the driver who injured you.

So, now what?  Both claims should be filed and pursued.  Workers compensation should be the primary insurance for paying for medical expenses, wage loss and any permanency award, but there’s a catch - The workers compensation insurance maintains a lien on any recovery you receive from the at fault driver or the at fault driver’s insurance.

With two claims being pursued simultaneously, it is very important to manage the timing of settling each case or taking each case to trial as the client’s recovery in one may impact the recovery in the other.  There may be times when it is in the client’s best interest to only receive additional final recovery from one claim, and not the other and instead negotiate down the liens.  This can be a very complex and involved decision to make and each client’s circumstances must be evaluated on its own before pursuing the route most advantageous to the client.  If two different firms handle your car accident case and your workers’ compensation case, the client does not have the benefit of this coordination.  This is especially true because sometimes the most advantageous route for the client will result in reduced or minimal attorneys fees on one of the claims.  If two different firms are handling the two different claims, it is unlikely that one firm would propose the route that reduces or minimizes their attorneys fee.

At Adeszko, Abate & Green, since we handle both types of claims, we are able to coordinate a clients workers compensation claim and personal injury claim together.  It allows us to achieve the best result for our clients that maximize their recovery every time.