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To find help in your state visit the National Association of Crime Victim Compensation Boards. If you expect a full recovery from a physical assault with only a few days or weeks missed from work, you can probably handle your workers’ compensation claim on your own. Serious or potentially disabling workplace injuries are a different story.
No matter if you knew the person or you were assaulted by a stranger, one of the first things to do after a workplace assault is to contact the police and file a criminal complaint against your attacker.
You can sometimes sue your employer in court for a work-related injury, but in most cases you'll have to file a workers' comp claim. Want to Sue Your Employer for a Work-Related Injury? Here's What You Need to Know. | DisabilitySecrets Get a FREE Case Evaluation Get a FREE Case Evaluation SSDI & SSI
In addition to workers’ comp, your employer and the attacker may be liable for your damages. While news reports give more attention to mass shooting incidents, there are hundreds of violent assaults in the workplace every day.
If you decide to file an assault injury lawsuit directly against the person who attacked you, you’ll have one year from the date you got hurt to do. If you decide to file a personal injury lawsuit on the grounds of negligent security or other negligent conduct, you’ll have three years from the date of your assault.
Bars, Nightclubs, and Property Owners: If you were attacked on someone else’s property, you might have a legitimate claim for damages against the owner. In New York, owners have to take certain precautions to protect visitors and guests from reasonably foreseeable acts of third party violence.
Assault and battery are what are known as “ intentional torts .”. An intentional tort means that you’ve suffered an injury because of someone else’s willful actions. In other words, you’ve been harmed in some way because of someone else’s purposeful and willful behavior.
As a result, you had a reasonable fear that you would be harmed. Assault does not require contact or physical harm. Rather, assault focuses on the fear of imminent harm.
Civil Assault. Assault means that you’ve suffered a reasonable apprehension of imminent harm. In other words, someone else’s actions made you fear for your safety or well-being in that moment in time. In order to establish assault, you’ll have to prove: The defendant made a threat or attempted to cause physical harm.
Failure to do so can mean that the landlord is on the hook for some or all of your damages. Schools: Sadly, fights and attacks are becoming commonplace in New York City schools.
No one has the right to touch you, hurt you, or make you fear for your life. If you’ve been assaulted in New York City, you might be entitled to compensation. You can file a personal injury lawsuit against your attacker, regardless of whether they’re formally charged with a crime.
To sue a property owner for negligent security, you must establish that the party had a duty of care to you, that the party breached its duty, that the breach led to your injuries, and that you sustained damages.
Other potential examples of negligent security that can lead to an assault or injury include: 1 Insufficient security guards on duty 2 Unsecured gates and doors 3 Cameras that are not functional 4 Poorly maintained security systems 5 Poor security protocols
Suing the Person Who Assaulted You. If you know who assaulted you, you can sue them for the damages you suffered. However, in many cases, your attacker will not have the money you need to cover all your injuries and losses. In other cases, the attacker may have fled the scene. If this is the case, we can determine whether any other third parties ...
Who Can I Sue for an Assault at Work? In most cases, you cannot sue your employer for an injury in the workplace. This is because workers’ compensation laws prohibit you from suing your employer for an injury that occurs at work. However, you may be able to sue your employer if your employer is the party that assaulted you.
An assault at your workplace is one of the most traumatic events you can experience. Aside from your home, you likely spend more time at work than any place else. So, an assault at work can have a very serious impact on your sense of security. While S. Burke Law cannot restore your sense of security at the workplace, ...
In many cases, an employer’s negligence will contribute to a workplace assault, e.g., your employer hires someone with a violent past who assaults you while you walk to your car. Unfortunately, it is unlikely that you will be able to hold your employer liable.
Protect your rights after an assault at work. In addition to workers’ comp, your employer and the attacker may be liable for your damages.
When your employer doesn’t take reasonable actions to protect you from workplace violence, and you are injured, you may have the right to file a personal injury claim or lawsuit in addition to your workers’ comp claim.
Notify Your Employer: As soon as you’re able, tell your employer you were injured on the job. File a Workers’ Comp Claim: Telling your employer isn’t enough. You have to file your worker’s comp claim before your state’s deadline. Your employer should give you a claim form and instructions.
Personal relationships. The fourth category of workplace violence, personal relationships, almost always targets women. When you’ve been violently injured on the job, you have a right to expect compensation for your medical bills, lost wages, and more.
If your boyfriend’s ex unexpectedly shows up at the department store where you work and punches you in the nose, your employer is probably not liable for your injuries. The employer could not know that someone with a personal grudge would show up at your workplace.
Almost all employers are required by state workers’ compensation laws to provide insurance for eligible employees. If you were performing duties on behalf of your employer when the assault occurred, you could still be covered even if you were off-the-clock.
If the employers’ gross negligence contributed to the assault, or the employer failed to carry workers’ comp insurance, the injured worker has the right to file a personal injury claim against the employer. Most courts provide an opportunity for victims of violent crimes to seek restitution from the attacker, or at least give a victim impact ...
Statute of limitation deadlines for filing personal injury lawsuits can be short, sometimes as little as one year. The extra damages that a lawyer will help you get for pain and suffering or punitive damages often more than pay for the lawyer's fee.
This means intentional acts only, not your employer's negligence at failing to protect your health and safety. Carelessness, even in the most extreme forms, is still insufficient to amount to an intentional harm in this case.
You will need to show, with legally acceptable evidence, that your employer did something wrong to cause your injury. This is different from a standard workers' compensation case, in which you only have to show that the injury or illness arose at work, or in the course and scope of your employment.
This means that you cannot file a regular lawsuit for damages related to a workplace injury or illness (with narrow exceptions described below).
The drawback to a workers' compensation claim as opposed to a regular civil lawsuit is that, in a workers' compensation claim, you cannot recover punitive damages. Your benefits will be limited to those allowed by the workers' compensation laws in your state, and are usually tied to a percentage of your wages.
In addition to lost wages, reimbursement for medical treatment, and compensation for any permanent impairment, you may be able to sue for pain and suffering and punitive damages. Punitive damages can be a sum of money many times the amount of actual damages you incurred, especially in the case of egregiously bad behavior on your employer's part.
Workers' compensation allows you to begin receiving monetary and medical benefits immediately, as long as you are eligible for those benefits. Your employer will pay for almost all claim-related medical care.
Usually you cannot sue your employer directly, you can only make a workers compensation claim. This can cover some of your medical issues and lost wages.
In general courts in other parts of the country have ruled that employers who terminate employees for defending themselves may be guilty of wrongful termination, but this issue has not yet come up in New Jersey. New Jersey is an at-will employment state. It also may depend on what your company policy has to say about self-defense at work.
Yes. It is recognized that threats or threatening behavior can cause actual mental harm. While a workers compensation case based on mental health may be a little harder to win than one based on physical injury it is still possible to file a workers compensation claim.
If you’ve been injured on the job don’t wait for your employer to do the right thing. Your employer will do whatever it takes to protect their own interests.