In our last post, we began speaking about the intersection of workers’ compensation and personal injury liability in cases involving on-the-job motor vehicle accidents. When such an accident results in serious injury for an employee, it is important that he or she explore all potential avenues of compensation, including workers’ compensation and personal injury litigation.

Exactly what type of compensation will be available to an individual in such a situation depends on the facts of the case, specifically what factors contributed to the accident. On the workers’ compensation side of things, the availability of benefits would depend on whether the accident is deemed to have arisen out of and in the course of employment.

Car accidents which occur while an employee is legitimately carrying out a work-related task would ordinarily qualify as covered workplace injuries, but what about situations where the employee had deviated from his or her work duties? It is possible that there are certain scenarios such as this where an employee would not qualify for workers’ compensation.

In addition, there is also the question of whether an employee would have the ability to pursue litigation against his or her employer outside the workers’ compensation system. Ordinarily, workers’ compensation is the exclusive remedy available to injured workers, but there are certain exceptions to this rule in most states, including Illinois. In cases where a worker is injured due to deliberate, intentional conduct on the part of the employer, the worker may be able to pursue litigation outside the workers’ compensation system. An example might be where an employer fails to keep company a vehicle properly maintained and this results in a serious accident for a worker.

In our next post, we’ll continue looking at the issue of pursuing compensation for work-related car accidents.

Sources:

Iadtc.org, “Folta v. Ferro Engineering: A Shift in Il Workers’ Compensation Protection,” Patrick Stufflebeam, March 11, 2015.

American Bar Association, “The Exclusive Remedy Provision State-by-State Survey,” Albert Randall, Jr., Accessed Nov. 13, 2015.