Can I sue my employer for pain and suffering?
No. Workers’ compensation is a no-fault system that provides benefits regardless of who caused the injury. Accidents on the job happen for many reasons. Sometimes a co-worker is careless, sometimes the employer furnishes defective equipment or working conditions are unsafe, and sometimes the injured person makes a mistake. Even if you are careless, cause an accident and hurt yourself, you still get workers’ compensation benefits. The trade-off for such a system is that you cannot sue your employer for anything other than workers’ compensation benefits even if the injury was your employers’ fault. If the injury was due to the fault of someone other than you, a co-worker or your employer, however, you may be able to sue for pain and suffering. For instance, if you are in a wreck out on the highway and it was not your fault, you can collect workers’ compensation benefits and still sue the “at fault” driver for pain and suffering and other damages.
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